Lat Am’s DirecTV takes Thomas Markle doc

Latin American pay TV provider DirecTV has picked up the stand-alone documentary Thomas Markle: My Story from Banijay Rights.

Thomas Markle: My Story

The 1×90’ documentary features the Duchess of Sussex’s father as he shares insights into one of the biggest international news stories this year: the decision by her and Prince Harry to step down from their royal duties.

The Latin American pay TV operator is set to broadcast the documentary in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela through its OnDirecTV channel as well as via its VoD service DirecTV Go.

The acquisition is part of the latest raft of sales which has seen the documentary picked up by Movistar+ in Spain, RTL and VTM in Belgium, Yes and Channel 8 in Israel, New Zealand’s TVNZ, Discovery Nordics and Virgin Media in Ireland. The documentary originally aired on Channel 5 in the UK last month.

Thomas Markle: My Story is produced by UK indie Alaska TV and executive produced by double Bafta winner Paul Sommers.

Elliott Chalkley, VP of sales at Banijay Rights, said: “The documentary created a great buzz at Natpe Miami and we are thrilled to see how quickly that has translated into sales. Thomas Markle: My Story is an important record, portrayed in a sensitive manner by an award-winning creative team. Our partners at DirecTV recognised this immediately and we are hugely proud to be instrumental in giving it the global exposure it deserves.”