Blue Planet


BBC announces Blue Planet II

The BBC has officially unveiled its latest blue-chip natural history series, Blue Planet II, and will launch it to international buyers at its Showcase event in Liverpool this week. Sir David Attenborough will narrate the series, which was previously known as Ocean and will look at underwater environments and animals across every continent. BBC Studios’ […]

BBC Worldwide Showcase: in deep water

Ocean will be the focus of the Tuesday night activity for buyers at the BBC Worldwide Showcase next week, with the commercial arm of the BBC handing the natural history series the premium slot usually reserved for huge formats and entertainment shows (Top Gear last year), or talent-filled drama (Wolf Hall in 2015). Although the evening […]

Blue chip to new chip: natural history with bite

Stewart Clarke speaks to commissioners, producers, distributors and digital pioneers about their efforts to reimagine the natural history genre. Alastair Fothergill is the embodiment of blue-chip, making landmark series for the BBC and films for Disney Nature, but he is now seeking to reinvent the genre, out of necessity as much as anything. “When I […]

Netflix, BBC in key Planet Earth streaming deal

Netflix’s push into natural history programming continues after the streaming service secured US rights for the BBC’s entire Planet Earth series. The deal with BBC Worldwide North America could soften the blow landed on the BBC when Netflix last week announced it was working on a 4K Planet Earth follow-up with the series’ producer, Silverback Films, […]

Worldwide strikes worldwide SVOD deals

BBC Worldwide has struck a raft of deals with digital platforms around the world, shopping 2,300 hours of its content to buyers including Tencent in China, Amazon in Germany and fledgling Israeli SVOD service from telco Cellcom. Cellcom has acquired a drama package including Sherlock, Orphan Black and Luther (pictured). Amazon has also picked up […]

Best of British SVOD service Cirkus cuts Nordic deal

UK content-based VOD service Cirkus has inked a deal with Nordic pay TV service Boxer, TBI has learnt. Cirkus is operated by Content and Co., the UK-based consultancy run by TV industry veterans Mark Bradford and Hugh Williams. The deal with Boxer means the Cirkus service will be made available to the DTT pay TV […]