Young Pope goes global

Jude Law in The Young Pope

Broadcasters in Africa, Europe and New Zealand have picked up Jude Law-starring drama The Young Pope from distributor FremantleMedia International (FMI).

MNET (Pan-Africa), HBO (Pan-CEE), BETV in Belgium, OTE TV in Greece, 365 in Iceland, Sky in New Zealand, Hot in Israel, Sweden’s TV4 and Dutch broadcasters Videoland and Fox have all acquired the 10×60’ series.

The deals follow on from the recent pan-Scandinavian sale to Nordic subscription VoD service C More. As part of that agreement, Swedish commercial free-to-air network TV4 look the right for the series after it has aired on C More.

The Young Pope tells the story of the first American Pope and is the first coproduction between European satcaster Sky, HBO in the US and France’s Canal+.

It is being produced by Italian prodco Wildside, in which FremantleMedia has a majority stake, and coproduced by France’s Haut et Court TV.

The first two episodes of the series had their world premiere on Friday at the out-of-competition special event at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival.

The international distribution rights (outside of partner territories) are held solely by FMI.