Fusion explores global black market

The Traffickers is presented by Nelufar Hedayat

Youth-skewing US digital and linear channel Fusion has commissioned an investigative series from an Oscar-winning producer that examines the global black market.

Hosted by British journalist Nelufar Hedayat, eight-part series The Traffickers will take an “unflinching” look at the global trafficking trade, Fusion said.

“The international criminal networks that traffic in everything from drugs to human organs are far more intertwined with the ‘legitimate’ world than we’d like to believe,” said Keith Summa, executive producer of Investigations, Fusion’s documentary arm.

It marks the first Fusion commission for London- and LA-based production company Lightbox, which was set up in 2013 by Simon Chinn, best known for the Academy Award-winning feature docs Man on Wire and Searching for Sugar Man.

Fusion, which launched in October 2013, targets English-speaking and Hispanic audiences aged 18 to 34 with a mixture of 24/7 news, comedy and lifestyle shows.

It is a joint venture between Hispanic broadcaster Univision and Disney-owned US broadcast network ABC. Reports emerged last year that Disney was looking to pull out of the joint venture.