BBC Studios mines content back catalogue with multi-genre sales across Europe

WBD MAX in France has bought detective drama Luther

MIPCOM: BBC Studios has unveiled multiple sales of scripted and unscripted titles from its 44,000-plus hours of back catalogue to a raft of buyers across Europe, driven by literary adaptations, crime drama and natural history.

Among European buyers, substantial scripted packages featuring high-profile titles have been licensed by four French broadcasters and streamers, including Warner Bros Discovery’s (WBD) SVoD platform MAX, Franco-German cultural service Arte.tv, M6+ and Mediawan, as well as Sky Italia in Italy and Network4 in Hungary.

WBD MAX, which launched in the France earlier this year, has taken French and French overseas territories rights for a package of detective dramas, including Sherlock and Luther, as well as BAFTA award-winning Misfits, The North Water and comedy Extras (series 1-2), which includes famous faces such as Samuel L Jackson, Kate Winslet and Ben Stiller.

Arte.tv’s free-VoD package, which is aimed at audiences in both French and German-speaking territories, includes period dramas and literary adaptations, War and Peace, Les Misérables, Little Dorrit, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. Other titles under the deal include Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning drama Top of the Lake and British Academy Television award-winning coming of age drama In My Skin.

Meanwhile, Streamer M6+ has picked up a package of costume dramas that includes Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth, Great Expectations starring Olivia Coleman and Sense and Sensibility. Mediawan has taken pay TV rights for Doctor Who (series 8-13), including specials, for its basic pay cable channel AB1.

Sky Italia has opted for crime-lite titles, such as Sister Boniface (series 1-3) and Death in Paradise (series 1-12, plus the 2022 Christmas special), as well as crime drama Luther (series 1-5), starring Idris Elba.

Hungary’s Network 4 has also opted for crime dramas, ranging from the popular crime-lite Death in Paradise (series 1-13) and Beyond Paradise (series 1-2), to The Chelsea Detective (series 1-2) and Silent Witness (series 16-17).

Over on the unscripted front, major buyers include AMCNI CNE, present in Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Romania and Slovakia; MTVA, TV2 Media Group and Network 4 in Hungary; and SABC in South Africa.

AMCNI CNE’s package includes food shows such as The Great South African Bake Off (series 4), and Nigella’s Amsterdam Christmas, as well as natural history and science docs Earth and Universe.

Hungarian pubcaster MTVA has opted for pre-school hit Bluey (series 1 and 2), music documentary ABBA: Against the Odds, natural history landmark Mammals and crime drama Sherwood (series 1). The TV2 Media Group, meanwhile, has licenced The Great British Bake Off car series Top Gear, as well as classic sitcoms like Extras, The Office, ‘Allo ‘Allo and You Rang My Lord.

SABC’s deal includes premium natural history series Spy in the Ocean, Serengeti II & III, Frozen Planet II and Wild Scandinavia.