MUMBAI: Broadcasters from across Middle East and Africa have snapped up a number of the latest top dramas at BBC Worldwide Showcase 2013.

The four-day event plays host to over 700 TV buyers including IBA, Yes and Al Jazeera from the Middle East and Africa?s MNet. Between them the networks have licensed ?The Paradise?, ?Call the Midwife?, ?Da Vinci?s Demons?, ?Top of the Lake? and ?Ripper Street? amongt others.

Israel broadcaster IBA has picked up two key Showcase titles, ?The Paradise?, starring Elaine Cassidy and Emun Elliott and ?Call the Midwife? (series one). IBA has also licensed a number of David Attenborough natural history titles including ?Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild? and ?Attenborough?s Giant Egg?.

Also in Israel, Yes DBS has concluded a drama package that leads with the eagerly awaited ?Da Vinci?s Demons?, written by David S. Goyer and starring Tom Riley and Laura Haddock, based on the genius? early years in Renaissance Italy. This follows BBC Worldwide?s sale of the eight-part series to Fox International Channels announced in August last year. Other series in the deal include ?The Fear? and ?The Secret of Crickley Hall? as well as a documentary package for titles such as ?Addicted to Tattoos?, ?Eat, Fast and Live Longer? and ?Junior Doctors? (series two).

In a drama double, BBC Worldwide has licensed both ?Ripper Street? and ?Top of the Lake?, to MNet for South African territory premieres.

?Doctor Who? (Series 5, 6, 7) will premiere on Al Jazeera?s children?s channel. Meanwhile Al Jazeera Documentary Channel has bought 200 hours of documentary, current affairs, science and natural history programming including ?Attenborough?s Giant Egg?, ?India on Four Wheels?, ?Panorama: Poor America?, ?Panorama: Price Tag Wars?, ?Transit of Venus? and ?True Stories? (series 2-4).

Elsewhere, OSN Dubai has acquired the latest series of ?Top Gear? (S19) and ?Top Gear USA? (S3), securing the exclusive first window in the Middle East territories.

BBC Worldwide territory manager Middle East and Africa, sales and distribution Paola Tonella said, "Drama is topping the bill at this year?s Showcase and it?s clear that BBC Worldwide?s programming with its quality scripts and first class production values are extremely attractive to global buyers. We are very proud of the Showcase slate, and I?m delighted we have completed important deals for these series, as well as our premium blue-chip documentaries, to key broadcasters in this region."

MUMBAI: Veria Living Worldwide, a multiplatform media company devoted to showcasing healthy lifestyle and wellness programming, will be offering rights to the formats Fat Family Rescue and Ambush Make Under to international broadcasters for the first time at the ongoing television trade event Mipcom in cannes, france. The announcement was made today in Cannes by Veria Living Worldwide senior VP, head of programme sales.

Veria Living Worldwide represents healthy lifestyle and wellness programming, which connect viewers in a contemporary and accessible manner to the benefits and joys of living a healthy lifestyle.

It has offices in India, London, Middle East, Hong Kong, Dubai, and Africa.

Donahue said, "Both of these original formats were developed by two of the global television community‘s most talented and prolific production entities - Nancy Glass Productions and Banyan Productions. As a result, broadcasters will find these formats provide a built-in magnet to attract key demographic audiences for both daytime and primetime viewing."

The formats, which have already been greenlit as pilots for the Veria Living network in the U.S., include:

• Fat Family Rescue (working title)(one-hour pilot, plus 12 hours) - A heartwarming show which looks to help families plagued by obesity and inactivity by transforming their lives both physically and emotionally. Series is produced by Nancy Glass Productions (A&E‘s Fix This Yard, We TV‘s Staten Island Cakes and DIY‘s Money Hunters).
• Ambush Make Under (working title) (one-hour pilot, plus 12 hours) - This program strips away the excess and reveals the simple, natural beauty inside every woman. Series produced by Banyan Productions (Fox‘s Ambush Makeover, Discovery‘s Home Matters and TLC‘s Trading Spaces).

MUMBAI: Pacing up its localisation strategy in global markets, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) has launched its second channel in the Middle East.

Zee Alwan comes after Zee Aflam has seen reasonable growth and reached break-even status within three years. The Arabic channel, with content aimed at Arab family audiences, comes under Zee?s Asian television network arm, Zee Entertainment Enterprise LLC.

The broadcasting network had in 2008 launched a 24-hour free-to-air movie channel, Zee Aflam, in the Middle East.

Zee Alwan will have a content mix that include a diverse choice of Arabic serials and popular Indian TV serials dubbed in Arabic. A number of Arabic serials, produced and set in the Arab world, will also be aired. In the menu will include shows on cookery, health and fitness and travel features.

Zee Alwan will mark the arrival of Indian soaps to the Middle East. Says Zee Entertainment Enterprise LLC CEO - Middle East, North Africa & Pakistan Mukund Cairae, "With Zee Alwan, we are delighted to offer our audiences in the Arab world a dedicated channel that presents popular Indian serials dubbed in Arabic, and tailored for Arabic family audiences. The cultural context outlined in these popular serials will resonate with Arabic audiences as they are essentially about human values, family bonding, friendships and relationships. The historic ties between the Arab world and India will further enable Arabic audiences to relate to the serials."

Zee Alwan will be transmitted from Dubai with an operational office in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Viewers can receive the channel through frequency 12417 on Nilesat and 12111 Arabsat.

According to Cairae, the new channel will expand Zee?s footprint in the region which saw the launch of Zee Aflam, a Bollywood dedicated channel airing movies sub-titled in Arabic.

"We have already established a strong footprint in the Arab world through Zee Aflam, a channel dedicated to Bollywood films, dubbed or with subtitles in Arabic. Today, we are regarded as the ?Gateway to Bollywood for the Arab world? and with Zee Alwan we are taking our audience engagement to the next level with television serials and other lifestyle content, in addition to a strong bouquet of local programming," he says.

Zee?s other localisation experiments are already on in Malaysia, Russia and, to a limited extent, in France in partnership with Canal.

MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Television has inked three new distribution deals in the Middle East region with local broadcasters in Egypt, Qatar and Dubai.

The multi-year deals, brokered by SPT?s recently opened distribution office in Dubai, license broadcast rights to feature films from the Sony Pictures library across a wide variety of genres and decades.

For the first time, SPT has made content distribution deals with Al Rayyan in Qatar and the Egyptian-based television network, Rotana, which will broadcast the features on its multi channel platform.

Meanwhile in Dubai, SPT has confirmed a new distribution deal with national broadcaster Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI), who will air their selection on Dubai One.

Announcing the agreements, SPT executive director, distribution, for the Middle East Ziad Yaghi said, "As a committed participant on a pan-regional level, SPT is now also establishing new relationships at a national level as the sector expands. With many thousands of feature films and television series, the SPT library is well placed to meet growing Middle East demand."

Headed by Yaghi and based in Dubai, SPT?s distribution office opened in October 2011 and reports into SPT?s regional EMEA headquarters in London.

Its remit is to expand SPT?s distribution business in the region, particularly with the rapidly expanding number of local and regional broadcasters in each territory, and to harness new business in the fast growing digital sector.

SPT?s Dubai distribution office also works with SPT?s London office to manage the studio?s pan regional output deals with OSN and MBC.