Banijay Rights, the leading distribution arm of Banijay Group, today announces that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Canada’s national public broadcaster, has picked up two of its series, The Operatives and Saving Lives at Sea, for documentary Channel.
The deal, which was confirmed today at MIPTV in Cannes, will see AMO Media’s The Operatives, 10 x 60’, and Blast! Film’s Saving Lives at Sea, 12 x 60’, travel to Canada on documentary Channel, where the broadcaster has secured Pay TV and Video on Demand (excluding TVOD) rights to the titles.
Andreas Lemos, VP Acquisitions, Co-Productions & North America Sales Banijay Rights, said,
“We’re thrilled that a broadcaster as prestigious as the CBC will be our Canadian partner on these two fantastic factual series. Both shows combine great educational take-out with fantastic entertainment and a worthy message celebrating all-important environmental and life-saving work.”
Sandra Kleinfeld, Senior Director, Documentary, CBC, added, “We’re pleased to be working with Banijay Rights and look forward to sharing these titles with viewers across Canada on documentary Channel. With their topical subject matter, The Operatives and Saving Lives at Sea will make great additions to documentary Channel’s lineup of fascinating and thought-provoking titles from Canada and around the world.”
Saving Lives at Sea was produced by Blast! Films in the UK for BBC2. This series reveals how an army of ordinary people give up their own free time to staff more than 200 Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboat stations right across the UK. 24 hours a day, whatever the weather, the volunteers are ready to launch their boats and race to the rescue within minutes of a cry for help coming.
The series has been picked up by Top TV’s Choice Channel in New Zealand, TV2 in Denmark, RTE in Ireland and Canalife in Portugal, for its S+ Channel.
The Operatives features an elite team of former military commandos who travel the world bringing poachers and environmental criminals to justice. The team braves environments from shark-infested waters to jungle airstrips, risking imprisonment and injury in order to gather video evidence to take down people who harm endangered wildlife.
Produced by AMO Media, The Operatives was first broadcast in the US on Pivot TV and has been sold to; Top TV’s Choice Channel in New Zealand, Globosat in Brazil, AMC in Portugal and Spain, Discovery Corporate Services in Middle East, Northern Africa and Poland, Sony Pictures Television in CEE, Outside Television in the US and Lensmedia in China.
This latest announcement follows on from CBC’s recent acquisition of series 1 and 2 of The Detectives, 7x 60’ in total from Banijay Rights. Produced by Minnow Films for BBC Two, the factual title was renamed The Manchester Detectives, for CBC’s documentary Channel, when it aired earlier this year.