Vice Studios has signed a distribution deal with ITV Studios, marking the end of a nine-month search.
Announced this morning at the London TV Screenings, the deal will see ITV Studios add what was described as nearly 2,000 hours of Vice content to its catalog and represent future Vice Studios’ projects.
Vice content set for ITV includes the Dark Side of the Ring franchise, United Gangs of America, and VICE on HBO. ITV Studios’ recently launched label Zoo 55 will serve as the main destination for Vice content.
The deal was negotiated by Joe Patrick for Vice Media and Julie Meldal-Johnsen and Graham Haigh at ITV Studios, the production and sales arm of UK network ITV.
“We have been looking for a distribution partner that matches our creative ambition to work with us across our diverse and dynamic slate,” Jamie Hall, Co-President of Vice Studios said. “With their flexible, creative deal-making, digital first thinking and scale, the exceptional team at ITV Studios led by Ruth Berry, will ensure our programmes gain greater global exposure.”
Ruth Berry, President Global Partnerships and Zoo 55, added: “Adding Vice’s unique catalogue to our distribution portfolio and managing their brands in digital exploitation and FAST channels represents an exciting and rare opportunity to strengthen both our content pipeline and digital footprint. I am hugely excited about the opportunities for both parties and am looking forward to working closely with the Vice Studios’ team.”
Recent Vice Studios productions include Gangs of London, whose third season is set to drop on Sky in the UK; Max documentary Bama Rush; and the newly launched Vice News podcast Shane Smith Has Questions. The company also has a joint venture with Savage Ventures to operate its Vice brand digital channels.
‘Ludwig’ sales
Today, ITV Studios also revealed it has sold cosy crime drama Ludwig to 85 countries. The Big Talk Studios series, made in association with That Mitchell And Webb Company, has gone to ZDF in Germany which has boarded as co-production partner for the second season. Telequebec for French-speaking Canada, along with Telefónica in Spain, Warner Bros. Discovery’s free-to-air channel Giallo in Italy, SVT in Sweden, DR in Denmark, YLE in Finland, NRK in Norway, RUV in Iceland and BBC Poland have also acquired both seasons.
The BBC and BritBox co-production, from ITV Studios-owned Big Talk Studios, stars David Mitchell as a reclusive puzzle maker who assumes the identity of his twin brother, a police inspector, when he goes missing. It was the BBC’s biggest new drama of 2024, consolidating to nearly 10 million after 28 days.
Season one has been acquired by NPO in the Netherlands, VRT in Belgium, Prima Group in the Czech Republic, Telia in Lithuania and Estonia, RTL in Hungary and Pickbox in Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as Zoomer Media in a second window deal for English-speaking Canada.
In the Asia Pacific region, Ludwig has found a home on Seven Network in Australia, TVNZ in New Zealand, Pumpkin in China, Now TV in Hong Kong, BBC India, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) in Japan. BBC First has taken the show in a pan-regional deal for Africa.
Zhejiang deal
ITV Studios has also struck a co-development deal with China’s Zhejiang Media Group around non-scripted IP for local and global markets. Details on the first project they are working on Go! Fishing! are set to follow in coming months.
Mr. Shen Jian, Editor-in-Chief, Zhejiang Satellite TV, Zhejiang Media Group, said” “We are delighted to partner with ITV Studios to co-develop new IP for Chinese viewers. We are definitely seeing an appetite globally for new formats that explore universal themes through different cultures.
“I am personally very much looking forward to the collaboration which we expect to produce a new co-developed concept to launch in China and internationally in 2025.”
Berry added: “Zhejiang Media Group is a valued, longterm commercial partner to ITV Studios and I am pleased that with this deal we will unite our creative forces to develop original IP for Greater China and the international market.”
The deal was brokered on behalf of ITV Studios by Augustus Dulgaro EVP Sales Asia Pacific and Zoe Tsui, Head of Content & Format Sales Great China.
