Netflix takes US rights to Babylon Berlin

Streaming service Netflix has acquired exclusive rights to big-budget German drama Babylon Berlin.

The series is notable as a coproduction between free TV pubcaster ARD and pay TV provider Sky Germany, with Beta Film distributing it worldwide.

Netflix has swooped on US rights, news first reported by German TV trade site DWDL.de.

SVT in Sweden, NRK in Norway, DR in Denmark, YLE in Finland and RUV in Iceland, plus Movistar in Spain are among the other prebuyers.

At the point those deals were announced in February, Beta alluded to a US deal being in the works.

However, Beta declined to comment today, while Netflix could not be reached at press time.

Babylon Berlin, shot in German, is based on the Volker Kutschner novel series, which follow a police inspector in post-World War I Berlin.

The period drama has a budget of €40 million (US$43 million), making it one of the biggest German TV series of all time.