Sphere Abacus (SA) has announced a raft of deals on its slate of history docs, including the six-part docudrama 1776: American Independence, produced by Dash Pictures for National Geographic.
The distribution outfit is at Sunny Side of the Doc this week, represented by Will Stapley, global content director, and Laura Masson, sales director.
1776: American Independence has landed with Viasat World, Now TV Hong Kong, BBC Select Americas, Foxtel Group Australia and VRT.
Gladiators: Warriors Of The Ancient World, also from Dash for Nat Geo, has been acquired by Foxtel, Czech Television, ZDF Germany and JCG Korea.
The Woodcut Media-produced Queens That Changed The World has logged sales to SBS Australia, BBC Select Americas, Czech Television, Luk Internacional, Channel HOT8 Israel, Viasat World, NRK Norway, SVT Sweden, DR Denmark, Sky Germany, RAI Italy, ARTE, Madman Entertainment Australia and New Zealand, Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR), Foxtel Group Australia, TVP Poland, Prima Group Czech Republic, JCG Korea Inc. and HRT Croatia.
Produced by Australia’s Mint Pictures for SBS, The Hunt for the Last Nazis was sold to AMC Global Media Central Europe for the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia, as well as to RTL Netherlands.
Viasat World (CEE, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Scandinavia, and Poland), Foxtel and Luk Internacional for Movistar Plus+ in Portugal and Spain picked up Pernel Media’s The Maya: War of the Five Kingdoms.
FirstLook TV’s Great British Castle Rescue is headed to BBC Select Americas for North America.
Hana Palmer, executive director of global distribution and partnerships, stated, “History programming has always intrigued and fascinated viewers around the world. We’re seeing a big shift in the number of platforms and broadcasters that are looking at new ways for high-end historical storytelling to cater to their audiences’ continued appetites—from learning new details about well-known struggles and history’s huge characters to discovering largely unknown events from ancient times.”
Stapley added, “We are looking for more ancient and contemporary history ideas from producers and are hoping to have some promising discussions around this type of programming, amongst other genres, while at Sunny Side of the Doc.”
