Huge range of BBC Worldwide content heads to New Zealand networks

Almost 200 hours of BBC Worldwide’s leading drama, factual and entertainment content will air in New Zealand following deals across terrestrial and subscription platforms in that territory.

Award-winning filmmaker Louis Theroux leads an eclectic selection of content licensed to national broadcaster TVNZ with his excoriating expose of California’s drug underworld: The City Addicted to Crystal Meth. Other titles to air on the national broadcaster will include the UK’s latest comedy sensation in Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow (Open Mike Productions) and heart-rending contemporary drama Father and Son (a Left Bank Pictures / Octagon production) starring Dougray Scott. The courageous helicopter paramedics of Northern England make their NZ television debut in factual series Air Medics, while new series of Celebrity Masterchef (Shine Productions), Famous Rich & Homeless (Love Productions) and Tribal Wives (a Diverse Bristol Production) will all return to TVNZ.

New factual content features strongly in sales to Prime Television with lauded BBC Science producer Michael Mosley’s new titles: 10 Things You Need to Know About Sleep, 10 Things You Need to Know about Losing Weight and his new series aiming to discover just how much science can improve his life: Make Me…

Several major dramas premier in the latest content deal with subscription broadcaster Rialto Channel. The BBC / Blast! Films co-production Soundproof is a gripping urban thriller that breaks new ground in bringing deaf and hearing actors together, and Last Resort is a modern love story that won Best New British Feature at the Edinburgh Film Festival. Rialto Channel will also air the two most recent series of the television show for true music lovers Later…With Jools Holland.

Nearly 70 hours of BBC Worldwide lifestyle content will air on New Zealand’s Living Channel and Food TV, including territory premieres of Why Are Thin People Not Fat?, 50 Things to Eat Before You Die, Gardeners’ World 2009 and from those larrikin motorists with an eye on the menu: The Hairy Bikers - Mums Know Best.

And a stunning selection of more than 40 hours of factual programming has been acquired by the Documentary Channel, including Inside the Saudi Kingdom, The Satanic Verses Affair, Did Darwin Kill God? and a comprehensive selection from the BBC’s seminal science strand Horizon which includes Why Do We Dream?, The Secret Life of Your Bodyclock and Why Can’t We Predict Earthquakes?

“The immense variety of our content is key to our ability to license such a broad range of programming across such a diversity of platforms” said Robyn Campbell, BBC Worldwide’s Sales Manager, NZ. “We’re pleased to bring such a calibre of programming to New Zealand audiences.”

ENDS

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