Acquisitions Roundup: UKTV Slate – Really Picks Up UK Rights To ‘Covert Affairs’ Season 4
EXCLUSIVE: Despite a turndown in sales this past year, scripted acquisitions from the United States are still big business. The last 12 months saw some new players enter the fray such as the Discovery owned TLC and OTT services Netflix and LOVEFiLM, who are ramping up their offerings of exclusive first run content. And while all eyes are on the glossy new series that have been ordered for the 2013-2014 season and which UK broadcasters they will land with, TVWise continues its extensive acquisitions coverage with our broadcaster-by-broadcaster breakdown of which current shows will be coming back later this year or early next.
Australian mini-series Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War will receive its UK premiere on BBC Four on Monday July 8th at 9pm, it has been announced.
Netflix has renewed their original comedy series Orange Is The New Black for a second season. The renewal comes ahead of the series launch on the OTT service on July 11th, when all 13 episodes from the show’s first season will be made available to Netflix subscribers in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Latin America, Brazil and the Nordics. Production on the show’s second season is slated to commence this Summer for a 2014 premiere.
Maggie Gyllenhaal has been cast as the lead in BBC Two’s The Honourable Woman, the channel’s upcoming drama series from Hugo Blick. In addition, US cable network Sundance Channel has signed on to co-produce the drama, which will air as an 8 part mini-series on the network in 2014. The co-production agreement comes after Sundance co-produced another BBC Two series Top Of The Lake, which is set to premiere on BBC Two in the coming weeks.
Gregg Chillin (Da Vinci’s Demons), James Thornton (Emmerdale) and Maimie McCoy (The Musketeers) have joined the cast of Sky Living’s upcoming drama pilot The Last Witch. They join previously announced main cast members Katherine Kelly (Mr Selfrdige) and Anne Reid (Last Tango In Halifax).
Newcomer Gemma Fay has been cast as the lead in Sky Living’s upcoming hour-long drama pilot Rubenesque, TVWise has learned.
Sky Living has given the green-light to two new hour-long drama pilots titled Lawless and The Psychopath Next Door.
This one very nearly slipped by undetected. I’ve just learned that LOVEFiLM has acquired the UK streaming rights to The CW’s short-lived drama series Emily Owens, M.D. All 13 episodes of the series are now available to stream for members of the Amazon owned OTT service.