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Seven, ABC and Foxtel pick up more ITV shows

ITV has announced a number of sales to Aussie networks including Seven, ABC and Foxtel.

ITV Studios Global Entertainment has announced a number of sales to Australian broadcasters, principally to Seven, ABC and Foxtel.

These amount to more than 150 hours of content:

Foxtel has acquired the smash hit entertainment series Louis Spence’s Showbusiness currently screening on its Arena channel; ITV Studios produced comedy series White Van Man, starring Will Mellor, for The Comedy Channel; contemporary Dublin-based drama Love/Hate for W and the unique factual entertainment series Police POV for the Crime & Investigation Network.

Australia’s leading channel operator XYZnetworks has picked up the second series of the global hit reality show Four Weddings USA for their LifeStyle YOU channel.

Produced by ITV Studios for TLC, the series follows four competitive brides and their four extremely different nuptials. The deal also features the revealing reality show Katie & Alex: For Better, For Worse and Psychic Sally for LifeStyle YOU; long-running wildlife series Zoo Days for The LifeStyle Channel; alongside a variety of factual entertainment content including May the Best House Win for LifeStyle FOOD; and Britain’s Best Dish and Country House Cooking Contest for LifeStyle FOOD.

Joe Maddison’s War, Mammoth Screen’s moving period drama for ITV1 starring Robson Green (Wire in the Blood) and Kevin Whately (Lewis); has been signed by Australia’s national broadcaster ABC TV, alongside series two of the hit comedy Miranda and the latest series of the multi-award winning long-running children’s animation Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids.

Finally, Seven Network has acquired two primetime drama titles produced by ITV Studios – the major detective franchise Vera starring Academy Award nominee and BAFTA winner Brenda Blethyn (Secrets and Lies) alongside series five of hit crime drama Lewis starring Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox (Gosford Park).

ITV’s Augustus Dulgaro  said: “There is great demand in this region for high quality primetime content across all genres and we are delighted to confirm this wide range of deals. The programming acquired for audiences in Australia and New Zealand is a fantastic representation of the strong content and wide breadth of variety in our portfolio and we are looking forward to seeing these titles debut throughout 2011.”

13 Responses

  1. Is it just the ads on commercial tv that turns people off watching good shows or is it that you have to wade thru a whole lot of reality dribble and ads before you get to the good stuff.

  2. Enquired about I’m a Celebrity Get me out of Here and found out that the series has been bought by another network – not UKTV – anyone know who???

  3. I think you need to check your definition of “smash hit entertainment series”. Louis Spence gets just 150,000 viewers on Sky1 for his Showbusiness series – shows like Got to Dance and An Idiot Abroad get six times that figure. Indeed considering this and Pineapple Studios performed so badly on the ratings it’s even more frustrating he’s still being inflicted upon us.

  4. still waiting for uktv to announce they have rights to I’m A celebrity get me out of here…. and I wish the “itv granada channel” which airs in asia would come to foxtel

  5. I held my breath reading this, and am so happy to see that Joe Maddison’s War, with Robson Green is gping to the ABC.
    Sorry to see Vera is going to 7, because I like Brenda Blethyn and would have watched it on Fox or ABC. Will look elsewhere.
    And all that reality stuff – shudder. Not the slightest bit of interest.

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