Russia enters TVF’s palace

Broadcasters across Russia and the CIS have picked up titles from London-based distributor TVF International, including a documentary that goes behind the scenes at Buckingham Palace.

Lindsey Ayotte

Russian broadcaster Digital TV has acquired two-part special Inside Buckingham Palace, which originally aired on Channel 5 in the UK and was produced by Wildfire Television.

Under a package deal, Digital TV has taken David Attenborough-narrated Wild City: Singapore, BBC-RTE coproduction Columbanus: The Monk Who United Europe and investigative health documentary The Science of Sleep, from In Field Fly productions for CBC.

The Moscow-based channel has also picked up China’s Forgotten Emperor, a Smithsonian-Channel 4 joint commission.

Elsewhere, Stream TV has bought Animal Planet’s Rescue Vet, which follows veterinary clinics fighting to save animals’ lives.

Stream has also taken pubcaster CBC’s The Truth About Vitamins and documentary Brain Damage: The Truth About Trauma.

Meanwhile, in Saint Petersburg, First HDTV has picked up three-part series The Mystery of Matter, commissioned by PBS, which uses high-end reconstructions and re-enactments to tell the stories of history’s greatest scientific discoveries.

Finally, Travel + Adventure Channel has bought a lifestyle package including CICC’s Secret China, TVNZ’s Across the Pacific with Te Radar and Luxe Asia and City Time Traveller, both commissioned by Channel NewsAsia.

Lindsey Ayotte, sales executive for Central and Eastern Europe at TVF, said: “Business to the CEE region has gone from strength to strength and the appetite for quality factual content is only growing.

“I am particularly pleased that there is a real demand for the genres which are TVF’s heartland – high-end history and blue-chip science programming.”