International News
Zig Zag secures tour for Flintoff challenge show
BY JAKE KANTER
Freddie Flintoff Vs The World will go on tour in Australia, Canada and Europe as part of a raft of initial sales sealed by TVF Televi- sion for Zig Zag Productions. The ITV4 factual entertainment
series, which sees the former England cricketer take on other retired sports stars in a series of challenges across North America, has been picked up by Australia’s SBS Television and Discovery Net- works Europe. A further 10 international
broadcasters have secured the show, including Norway’s NRK and Canada’s High Fidelity HDTV. TVF Television is also in discus-
sions with an undisclosed broad- caster in India, where Flintoff is well known for his Ashes-winning performances for England. Zig Zag chief executive Danny
Fenton said the Indian broadcaster was interested in producing a local version of the format, which would see a famous Indian cricketer take on similar chal- lenges to Flintoff.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT Go Back To Where You Came From
immigration raids in Malaysia, living in a Kenyan refugee camp and visiting slums in Jordan before making it to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq.
The concept Six individuals are taken on a month-long journey to explore the route refugees take to enter Australia. The participants in the fact ent series, each with differing views on the asylum- seeker debate, are deprived of their wallets, phones and passports before heading off.
Where do they go? They make the journeys in reverse, boarding leaky boats, experiencing
16 | Broadcast | 1 July 2011
Where was it shown? The three-part series, made by Cordell Jigsaw, was stripped across three consecutive nights by Australian broadcaster SBS One last week.
How did it perform? On its debut, the series became the number one trending topic on Twitter worldwide and recorded the highest ratings for SBS for the year to date. It built its audience from 524,000 on the first night to 569,000 and 600,000 viewers for the subsequent two episodes.
Off the Fence has bolstered its factual catalogue with new documentaries about the Chilean mining disaster and 9/11. Passion Production’s The Chilean 33 (above) recounts the story of the miners’ ordeal, filmed before, during and after their rescue from the San Jose mine. BBC in-house production Twins Of The Twin Towers, meanwhile, features 37 twins from around the world who lost their sibling on 9/11.
www.broadcastnow.co.uk Freddie Flintoff Vs The World: picked up for Australia, Canada and Europe The all-rounder’s status as the
Ian Botham of his generation means the sales strategy has been to target cricket-loving nations, Fenton added. In countries where cricket is not
popular, Flintoff ’s personality was key to the sales, along with interest in the other former sportsmen that appear in the series, including boxer Joe Calzaghe and tennis player Mark Philippoussis.
ITV4 is yet to decide whether to
recommission the show, which achieved a consolidated audience of 271,600 (0.94%) in a 9pm Tuesday slot earlier this year – above the slot average of 246,700 (0.89%) for the year so far. Discovery Europe has an estab-
lished relationship with Zig Zag having already picked up Danny Dyer’s Deadliest Men and Vinnie Jones’ Toughest Cops.
For all the latest breaking news, updated daily, visit
www.broadcastnow.co.uk
Aussie chef Bill goes back home
with UKTV show A UKTV food series fronted by Australian chef Bill Granger is to be served up down under in the first deals for the show. Optomen International, the All-
3Media-owned distribution arm of Optomen Television, has secured its first deals for Bill’s Tasty Week- ends, which followed the Austral- ian chef around the UK. The 10 x 60-minute series, first
shown on Good Food in Novem- ber, has been picked up by XYZnetworks and public broad- caster ABC Australia. It will pre- miere on XYZnetworks, which owns and operates 11 subscription TV channels across Australia, before airing on ABC. The series has also been sold
to the Living Channel in New Zealand, Canal+ in Poland and Belgium’s VTM. Separately, Optomen has closed
its first VoD deal with New York- based New Video, which sells films, TV shows and web series to services offering digital download, streaming media and VoD. The agreement will see 100 hours of Gordon Ramsay programming made available through Netflix and Amazon, among others.
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