Discop News: BBCWW strikes digital deals

BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the British public broadcaster, has inked a raft of deals with digital platforms in Russia ahead of Discop.

The distributor has closed a deal with Yota, the wireless broadband internet company, for 2000 hours of content over three years. Yota, which is launching its multi-device video-on-demand service Yota Play in July, has acquired series including Sherlock, Misfits, Little Britain, Top Gear, Life and Planet Earth.

Russia’s digital portal IVI has also licensed 200 hours of programming for its site including a three hour stream of the Royal Wedding.

These deals come after BBC Worldwide struck its first Russian digital deal in April with Now.ru for 400 hours of programming.

These deals were struck by Gary Woolf, VP, business development and digital media and come as Discop East launches in Budapest this week.