BBC Worldwide, Spiegel strike partnership

BBC Worldwide and Spiegel have inked a deal that will see the commercial arm of the UK pubcaster provide a range of programming to the German publishing group’s TV channels over several years.

The agreement will see Spiegel take a large number of factual titles from the BBC’s commercial arm for its Spiegel Geschichte and Spiegel TV Wissen channels. The pay TV nets will get some titles on an exclusive basis.

Spiegel Geschichte and Spiegel TV Wissen are joint ventures between Spiegel and Beta Film, and former Discovery Neworks Germany boss Patrick Hörl’s producer and channel operator Autentic.

“The factual programmes from BBC Worldwide are of the highest quality,“ Hörl said. “We are looking forward to strengthening our working relationship with our partner of many years.”

Isabelle Helle, director of German-speaking Europe, BBCWW, said: “For years, we have been working closely with our colleagues from Autentic. Reinforcing this partnership is another opportunity to position our programmes, as well as the BBC brand, as a first-class producer of documentary content in the German speaking territory.”

The news came as the BBC Showcase event in Liverpool draws to a close.

In related news, Spiegel TV Wissen picked up a package of programming from France-based distributor Prime Entertainment Group.

The package includes one-off docs Chicago Ghetto & Gangs, Capetown, the Anti-Gang Squad and Narcos Andausia.