Global buyers develop a taste for Lion TV food industry doc Irresistible

Irresistible: Why We Can’t Stop Eating examines food industry practices

MIPCOM: A feature-length documentary about ultra-processed foods made by Warner Bros Discovery-owned UK prodco Lion TV is doing brisk business here in Cannes, with multiple presales already announced in Europe, Australia and Asia on the first day of the market.

BBC-commissioned Irresistible: Why We Can’t Stop Eating (1×120’), which is distributed internationally by BBC Studios, has been picked up by Swedish pubcaster SVT, Spain’s pay TV platform Movistar+ and TV2 in Denmark.

The title has also been presold to NowTV for Hong Kong and Australia’s SBS, as well as to an as-yet-undisclosed buyer in a pan-territory deal in Africa.

Described as ambitious and pioneering, the doc lifts the lid on whether ultra-processed foods are the biggest threat to world health since cigarettes and examines whether the practices of the food industry put profits before health.

Irresistible: Why We Can’t Stop Eating is due to premiere later this year on both the BBC’s linear channel BBC Two and streaming platform iPlayer.