News round-up: BritBox UK buys ‘Fat Friends’; Freevee expands ‘7 vs. Wild’, Quintus to sell format

Fat Friends

BritBox UK buys Fat Friends

Streaming service BritBox UK has picked up rights to all four seasons of Fat Friends, the Kay Mellor comedy-drama that first aired on British TV screens 23 years ago.

The show was produced by Mellor’s Rollem Productions in association with Tiger Aspect Productions and Yorkshire Television. It debuted on ITV1 in 2000 and follows the lives of a group of Leeds-based slimming club members and their attempts to lose weight.

The show starred a raft of established and soon-to-become famous faces, including Alison Steadman, Gaynor Faye, Ruth Jones, James Corden and Josie Lawrence.

It has already been acquired for BritBox Australia, following a deal with Banijay Rights. The agreement was brokered just a year after Mellor passed away, aged 71.

Freevee expands 7 vs. Wild, Quintus to sell format

Amazon Freevee has ordered a third season of German YouTube reality show 7 Vs. Wild, with Quintus Studios acquiring international format distribution rights to the format.

7 Vs. Wild was developed by German YouTube producers Fritz Meinecke, Johannes Hovekamp and Max Kovacs.

The show sends seven fellow content creators and influencers into the wilderness with just seven basic survival items – such as a machete, sleeping bag or fire steel. The contestants who survive the wilderness win a donation to the charity of their choice.

The first two 16-episode seasons were filmed in Sweden and Panama and streamed on YouTube in November 2021 and 2022 and claim a total of over 200 million views on YouTube.

The third season is expanded to feature seven teams of two who spend 14 days in the wild. It is set to shoot in Canada this summer and will be co-produced by Germany production company CaliVision Network.

Free streaming service Amazon Freevee has commissioned season three in Germany and will release two episodes per week, on Tuesdays and Fridays later this year. Each episode has a seven-day exclusive window on Freevee before it will be released on YouTube. The first two seasons of 7 Vs. Wild will also be available to watch on Amazon Freevee alongside YouTube ahead of the season three launch.

Quintus Studios will distribute the format in the world outside Germany.