Sphere Abacus has sold more than 200 hours of unscripted content into Central and Eastern Europe and enlisted former Fred Media exec Mem Bakar to lead its sales efforts in the region.
Bakar joins the company as sales director for Germany, CEE, and CIS. She will be attending NEM Dubrovnik next week alongside Ros Ali, who is retiring from the sales director post at the end of the month.
The pre-market sales for the company, brokered by Ali, include Viasat World buying Murderer Behind the Mask, The A-Z Killer, and West Harbor Heroes. Prima Group in the Czech Republic went for a package that includes Fire Guardians: Final Flight, Across the Alps with Griff Rhys Jones (w.t.), Field of Vampires, Shogun: The Hidden Story (w.t.), Paul Merton: Driving Amazing Trains, and Kevin McCloud’s Classic Car Road Trips. The series is also headed to RTV Slovenija along with Nordic Train at Christmas and Hollywood Crime Story: The Mob Takes over The Movies. Meanwhile, LRT Lithuania secured the rights to a slate that includes Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster, Delivered to a Predator: Al Fayed’s Fixer, and Life in Colour with David Attenborough. Leaving Neverland S2: Surviving Michael Jackson, Travels with Agatha Christie & Sir David Suchet, Elvis, the Colonel and The Mob, and Marilyn and the Mob were licensed to Canal+ in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
A pan-regional deal with AMC Global Media encompasses such titles as Simply Raymond Blanc and Three Days of Terror: The Charlie Hebdo Attacks. Its TV Paprika channel opted for the Paul & Nick titles Big New Zealand Food Trip, Big American Food Trip, and Big Canadian Food Trip.
The company lands in Dubrovnik with highlights like The World’s Tallest Man: The Next Chapter, produced by Wild Dream Films.
Hana Palmer, executive director of global distribution and partnerships, said, “It’s encouraging to see more than 200 hours of our wide range of compelling unscripted programming heading to CEE. Mem and Ros will both be in Dubrovnik to meet our many clients and share our brand-new series with them at NEM.”
