CEE’s Pickbox snaps up SA drama Catch Me a Killer as part of package from Sphere Abacus

South African true crime series Catch Me A Killer

Central and Eastern European streamer Pickbox has acquired a drama package for its subscribers from newly created distributor Sphere Abacus including South African title Catch Me a Killer.

Pickbox viewers in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Bulgaria will now have a chance to watch the 11×60’ show, produced by CMAK Films and Night Train Media for South African pay TV channel M-Net.

Also in the drama deal is UK thriller The Cuckoo (4×60’), made by Clapperboard Studios for Paramount’s Channel 5, and The Boy That Never Was (4×60’), and upcoming novel adaptation from Subotica for Irish pubcaster RTÉ.

The sales were unveiled by Sphere Abacus, officially formed this week after Canada’s Sphere Media completed a US$18m takeover of the UK’s Abacus Media Rights.

Elsewhere, Czechia’s FTV Prima has taken a non-fiction package including Top Guns: Inside the RAF S2 (6×60’, True North Productions), The First Inventors (4×60’, Ronde Media, Moogie Down), and Alan Cumming’s Most Luxurious Train Journeys: Scotland (4×60’, 14th Floor Productions, GroupM Motion Entertainment).

Croatian pubcaster HRT, meanwhile, has acquired sports-skewing content including Nike’s Big Bet: Alberto Salazar and the Fine Line of Sport (1×45’, Paul Kemp Productions, Cream Films in partnership with Globe), and The Moment: How Sports Changed the World (1×58’, Red Bull Studios, 1895 Films).