SBS winds back the clock with Cineflix Rights for history content
History documentary Voices of the Dead
Australian pubcaster SBS has sealed a deal with UK indie distributor Cineflix Rights for more than 20 hours of factual content from its blue-chip history and documentary slate.
The deal builds on the two firms’ activity at October’s Mipcom event, which saw the broadcaster buy another history doc – Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer (4×60’) – from the distributor.
Other content includes history documentary Voices of the Dead (3×60’), made by London’s SandStone Global for the UK’s Channel 5. The show sees Professor Bettany Hughes using new technology to examine how people lived in Ancient Egypt and Pompeii.
The Story of Late Night (6×60’), made by Canada’s Cream Productions for CNN in the US, looks at late-night television’s most memorable moments with interviews from A-list celebrities and late-night hosts.
Battle of Alcatraz (2×60’), made by California’s Hoff Productions for US cable channel Reelz, tells the story of a jailbreak from 1946 when five convicts escaped the San Francisco jail.
WWII by Drone (6×60’) examines Europe’s battlefields with CGI and drone-mounted technology. The series is made by London’s Like A Shot Productions for UKTV and for the Smithsonian Channel in the US.
Battle of Britain: Three Days That Saved the Nation (3×60’) is made by London prodco Lion Television for Channel 5 in the UK and explores three pivotal days during the Second World War when UK forces put everything on the line for aerial supremacy over the Nazis.
The Day Hitler Died (1×60’), made by Glasgow’s Finestripe Productions for UK pubcaster ITV and Smithsonian Network in the US, uses recently rediscovered eyewitness interviews which have never been broadcast, together with archive footage and reconstruction to provide an eye-opening account of Hitler’s final days in his Berlin bunker.
The Day Kennedy Died (1×60’), also made by Finestripe Productions for the same original broadcasters, commemorated the 50th anniversary of President John F Kennedy’s assassination when it was released in 2013.
