BBC Worldwide concludes raft of dramatic French deals

BBC Worldwide has told TBIvision that it has shopped a raft of drama titles to French terrestrial, DTT and pay TV broadcasters and inked several digital deals.

The programming deals include selling Tiger Aspect-produced drama series The Deep, starring Minnie Driver and James Nesbitt, to TPS Star and France 4.

DTT network Jimmy has acquired all nine seasons of crime procedural Waking the Dead and its DTT counterpart NRJ12 has picked up second-window rights to sci-fi series Doctor Who, which airs on France 4.

The deals come as Worldwide increases the amount of coproduction it does with French partners. As well as high-profile upcoming drama series Death in Paradise, with France Televisions, it is coproducing Egypt: What Lies Beneath with France 5 and Inside the Titanic with France 2 and RTBF (Belgium).

The distributor is also faring well in the digital space with its drama series Sherlock debuting at number one in the French iTunes store and Doctor Who also making the top ten. French video-on-demand service Vodeo, meanwhile, has bought 350 hours of Worldwide history, factual and science content.

“The digital market is obviously a growth area for us,” Sandra Petkovic, BBC Worldwide’s territory manager for France told TBIvision. “The success of our titles on the iTunes platform is a strong indicator of the versatility of our content to work across a variety of platforms.”