Sky Italia buys Mafia dog-grooming series

Sky Italia has acquired The Diamond Collar (pictured), the 10x30mins series reality series about a former mafia henchman turned dog groomer. The reality series goes out on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network in the US and Passion Distribution sells it internationally and struck the Sky deal.

The London-based distributor has also sealed several other deals with Italian buyers.

Mediaset has acquired several UK shows from Passion including Mentorn’s clip series World’s Worst Holiday Horrors and Pioneer’s one-off doc Predators in Paradise.

Discovery Networks has licenced a host of The Weather Channel titles for its Italian feed, including Deadliest Space Weather and Secrets of the Earth.

A+E’s Italian Crime + Investigation channel has picked up titles including Why did Oscar Pistorius Kill our Daughter? and Murder on the Social Network.

Lorenzo Bertolotti, Passion’s sales manager for the region, said: “Italy has a strong and healthy appetite for quality factual content; this is evident not only in new channel launches but also in a change of direction on long existing channels that have only recently opened up their schedules to this kind of content and found it very successful.”