Fred Media is adding a slate of content from Australia’s Seven Network to its Life Down Under FAST channel.
At launch, the service delivered lifestyle, documentary, and factual content about Australia from Fred Media’s parent company, WTFN, including The Wild Life of Tim Faulkner, and Sydney Harbour Force. The deal with Seven Network adds a wealth of reality, home, design, and food shows, among them Australia’s Amazing Homes, Extreme Weddings, Zumbo’s Just Desserts, and Yummy Mummies.
The channel is also expanding with content from Great Home Ideas, the YouTube channel that Radar, Fred Media’s digital services company, has been managing since last year. That channel delivers content in the DIY, food, gardening, lifestyle and pet areas.
The Life Down Under FAST channel is distributed on Samsung TV Plus, LG, Fetch and Plex in Australia and New Zealand. It is also carried on LG Channels in seven European markets, among them the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
Richard Henson, director of distribution and content partnerships at Seven Network, commented, “Today, more than ever, it is important for television and digital companies to maximize the value of the IP they own and ensure their content is constantly finding new audiences. Radar has already shown us what is possible with strategically curated and managed digital channels on YouTube, so it was a no-brainer to now collaborate with WTFN’s Fred Media for FAST.”
He added, “Life Down Under is an established brand with a growing audience so we are excited for Seven Network’s content to be the impetus for its relaunch—and for our shows to become synonymous internationally with so much that is great about the Aussie lifestyle.”
Derek Dyson, WTFN’s chief commercial officer, with oversight of Fred Media and Radar, noted, “Life Down Under has provided international audiences with a unique taste of Australia to date, but the addition of hundreds of hours of Seven Network’s brilliant lifestyle programming allows us to supercharge that offer. Now we can share an unprecedented range of authentically Aussie content with viewers in Europe, as well as domestically—and hopefully soon, further afield.”
