UKTV, the multi-award winning media company that reaches over 42 million viewers a month, today announced the acquisition of the brand new series CIA Declassified and the second series of Black Ops from World Media Rights. Both series have been acquired for Yesterday, the UK's biggest factual channel and are scheduled to start in Q1/Q2.
The deals were negotiated by UKTV's Acquisitions and Co-Production Manager Emma Sparks and World Media Rights? CEO Alan Griffiths, and ordered by UKTV's General Manager of Factual, Adrian Wills.
From Chile to Afghanistan, CIA Declassified tells the real stories of the CIA's covert operations, drawing from the declassification of documents which have been released over the last 20 years. Every episode reveals different hidden secrets from these documents, including how the CIA let off a bomb in Beirut and how Osama bin Laden?s hiding place was tracked down by a group of women agents.
The series also investigates the CIA?s prolonged campaign against Colonel Gaddafi, the CIA agent Felix Rodriguez who tracked-down and executed Che Guevara, and the true story behind CIA agent Tony Mendez?s rescue mission of six American diplomats in Iran, which inspired the Hollywood film Argo.
Black Ops travels the world taking viewers on top secret special operations revealing how elite special units in different countries carry out their high-risk, zero-recognition assignments. Missions investigated in this series include the destruction of a nuclear processing reactor in Syria, a 2012 SAS raid to recover hostages in Afghanistan, and the release of the hostages in the Japanese Embassy siege in 1997.
Adrian Wills, General Manager for Yesterday, commented
?Compelling real-world modern conflict stories are extremely popular with Yesterday viewers, as the ratings of the first series of Black Ops proved. We're really excited about the second series and the brand new series CIA Declassified, as they are both a gripping and exciting watch, using eyewitness and participant interviews, archive footage and dramatic reconstruction.?
UKTV's Acquisitions and Co-Production Manager Emma Sparks, added
?CIA Declassified and Black Ops give viewers the chance to enter the secretive world of the CIA and modern conflict, making them exciting and dangerous TV.?
World Media Rights? CEO Alan Griffiths said
"We are very pleased to help boost the ratings of new innovative channels like UKTV's Yesterday as WMR?s mission is to create high quality television for exciting growing networks in the UK and around the world. Black Ops, with its audience of history and computer games fanatics, does just that while CIA Declassified gives new insights in to the way in which the CIA operates. WMR always goes for compelling stories ? as that is the surest way to build an audience."
The first series of Black Ops averaged an opening audience of 389,000 adults, and achieved a 2.1% audience share.
For more information or interview opportunities, please contact:
Emily Jones, Publicist, Factual
Lara Feinstein, Corporate Communications Coordinator
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Notes to Editors
About Yesterday
Sky 537, Virgin 203, Freeview 19
Showcasing UK premiere series such as Raiders of the Lost Past, Museum Secrets, and Treasure Detectives, Yesterday provides entertainment inspired by history. The channel also features dynamic history and science-inspired series such as Perfect Storms: Disasters that Changed the World, and programmes which challenge expectations including Secret Life of?. Ancient history is also featured in series including Alexander?s Lost Cities and Mummy Mysteries, plus modern conflict in shows such as Black Ops.
About UKTV
The multi-award winning media company that reaches over 42 million viewers per month.
UKTV's ten imaginative channel brands - Watch, Dave, Gold, Alibi, Eden, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home and Good Food - include the number one channel in the Factual genre, the number one channels in the Lifestyle genre (Pay and Free) and the most famous channel and programmes in the Entertainment genre.
UKTV has a truly innovative model, curating brand-defining commissions, high-profile acquisitions and the very best of BBC and Channel 4 content, and embracing technology to deliver inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT Vision, TalkTalk on YouView, plus direct On Demand digital services. The network distributes its highly valued programmes to 200 territories around the world and supplies Sky with more hours of HD content than anyone else.
Now celebrating its 21st year at the forefront of digital television, UKTV - an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI) - is proud to be the only British broadcaster to be recognised by Best Companies.
corporate.uktv.co.uk / pressoffice.uktv.co.uk / @uktv_press
About World Media Rights
World Media Rights (WMR) is currently one of the largest factual programme producers in the UK. Created in 2007 it now supplies factual TV programming to over fifty countries globally and its programmes are regularly broadcast on channels including Discovery (in Europe and the USA), France Television, Canale Plus, ZDF, Mediaset and UKTV. The WMR senior management team includes renowned television industry executive and broadcaster Andrew Neil, Alan Griffiths (CEO) and Matthew Barrett (Creative Director).