Canada’s national public broadcaster acquired a slew of scripted and non-scripted titles from the studio.
ITV Studios has struck a major content deal with the CBC, Canada’s national public broadcaster, for a slew of scripted and non-scripted titles, including Ten Year Old Tom, Bump Series 2 and Showtrial.
The deal will also see the long-running soap Coronation Street extended, as well as a number of new hit dramas, comedies and factual shows acquired by the broadcaster. In the scripted space, this includes winter premieres on the CBC Gem streaming service of the gripping courtroom drama, Showtrial, from the producers of Line of Duty and Vigil, World Productions; Swedish police procedural series Thin Blue Line (Anagram Sweden) and the second series of the highly-acclaimed adaptation of the best-selling novel by Malorie Blackman Noughts + Crosses (Mammoth Screen).
Adult animation Ten Year Old Tom (Work Friends), described by the Wall Street Journal as having “cult hit written all over it”, was also premiered exclusively in Canada on CBC Gem this month.
Comedy dramas Bump Series 2 (Roadshow Rough Diamond), an original comedy-drama created and co-written by Kelsey Munro, which follows Nathalie Morris as Oly, as well as Spreadsheet (Northern Pictures), a brand new comedy about a newly-divorced lawyer played by Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd, Humans) looking for sex without commitment, will also premiere exclusively in Canada on CBC Gem. The tense Scandinavian thriller Greyzone (Cosmo Films), a series about about a drone engineer held hostage in her own home by terrorists, is also returning to the public broadcaster’s streaming service.
A number of factual titles, such as The Queen Unseen, Paul O’Grady For The Love Of Dogs Series 10 and the Royal Variety Performance 2021, are also part of the content deal.
Craig Bohland, Vice President Sales, Canada, at ITV Studios, said: “We are excited to extend our long-running Coronation Street partnership with CBC, along with a top notch list of amazing scripted and factual titles from across the globe. This includes shows from a rich number of territories including the UK, Australia, Sweden and the USA.”
Jenna Bourdeau, Senior Director, Acquisitions at CBC, said: “This is an exciting deal for CBC audiences in Canada. Coronation Street has been a sustained favourite since it first debuted on CBC in the 1960s, and these new, acclaimed titles complement our original Canadian shows with a distinct selection of best-in-class series from around the world. Ten Year Old Tom and Showtrial represent the kind of high impact, one-of-a-kind premium shows we’re looking to bring to Canadians on CBC Gem.”
As part of CBC’s commitment to advance environmental sustainability in the production industry, the public broadcaster is requesting evidence of sustainable production accreditation for all shows being acquired, including all shows from ITV Studios. ITV has pledged to become a Net Zero carbon business by 2030, as part of its ongoing commitment to creating the biggest shows with the smallest footprint. Last year, ITV Studios announced the global roll out of albert’s sustainability training and tools across all of it’s 60 production labels.
