TVFI shops factual in Asia, Mid East

Al Jazeera and BBC Arabic are among broadcasters in Asia and MENA to have picked up specialist factual series and specials from London-based distributor TVF International.

BBC Asia acquired TVFI’s Magnificent Megacities

Al Jazeera has gone for The Science of Sleep (1×44’), which originally aired on Canada’s CBC, while BBC Arabic has acquired a package including Hot Docs official selection Living the Game (1×59’/1×88’), which looks at the world of professional video gaming.

Arte’s Magnificent Megacities (5×52’) and Channel News Asia’s Meet the Makers (1×48’) are also included in the BBC deal.

Elsewhere, Sarimanok News Network, owned and operated by ABS-CBN in the Philippines, has picked up Channel 5’s series Inside Windsor Castle (4×44’). The same series was also picked up by ITV International Channels for Asia, along with touching BBC two-part doc Queen Victoria’s Letters: A Monarch Unveiled (2×60’).

TVBI acquired pan-Asia rights to the third series of luxury travelogue Luxe Asia (8×22’), produced by Active TV, and Xtreme Productions’ Spirits of Asia (8×23’), which looks at the continent’s alcohol production.

Living the Game follows professional video gamers

TVB Hong Kong also took Spirits of Asia, alongside Mediacorp’s pop science series The Big Idea (8×22’) and CBC health special ADHD: Not Just for Kids, produced by Markham Street Films.

RTHK Hong Kong has taken a package of one off specials including Love Productions’ Panorama investigation Classroom Secrets and BBC Storyville feature Rocking Cambodia: Rise of a Pop Diva, which charts the global rise of rock band The Cambodian Space Project.

In India, AETN18 Media secured a package including Beach House Pictures’ Aerial Asia (4×46’), a 4K aerial series filmed across India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, as well as Special Forces: China, part of History Channel’s 7×48’ Special Forces series.

The sales were brokered by senior TVF International executives Sanaya Irani and Julian Chou-Lambert.