Dave teams up with A Brand Apart Television and ITN Productions ahead of the World Cup

UKTV's award winning home of witty banter, Dave has teamed up with advertiser funded programme specialists A Brand Apart Television and ITN Productions to produce a six part international series titled Kia?s Road to Rio (6x60mins), in the lead up to next year's FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Kia?s Road to Rio will star comedians Mark Watson (BBC4?s We Need Answers, Argumental, Mock The Week) and Henning Wehn (The Alternative Comedy Experience, Dave's One Night Stand) as they drive through South America ahead of the biggest event in the world's footballing calendar, culminating in a finale episode in Rio. Filming will commence in January and hit the channel ahead of the FIFA World Cup next year. Each episode will feature Kia branding and the series will be broadcast in over 50 countries worldwide, including Dave in the UK.

The six part series will be produced by ITN Productions and follow the comedy duo on their exploration of the countries, people and cultures that the world will come to know so well when the football tournament kicks off. En route, they will laugh with football-obsessed locals, face roadside dramas, sample the local cuisine and unique way of life and meet famous football players as they begin to learn what the sport really means to the different people and why the South Americans are so exceptional at the sport.

Following the success of the channel?s other AFP partnerships, Steve North, General Manager for Dave, thinks the series will sit well on the channel in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup 2014

?We are sure the Dave audience will be as excited about the FIFA World Cup in Rio as we are. It is great to have Mark Watson and Henning Wehn back onto the channel and it?ll be interesting to see how their travels around South America unfold.?

UKTV Commissioning Editor Iain Coyle added

"The series will offer an exciting insight into the host country of the FIFA World Cup and a fun way for Dave viewers to get ready for the biggest sporting event in the world. We're really excited to be working with ITN Productions and A Brand Apart on this unique project."

ITN Productions Head of Factual and Features, Emma Read said

?This is the football fuelled road trip of a lifetime celebrating the unique and extraordinary approach to life and football in South America through the eyes of our intrepid duo, Mark Watson and Henning Wehn. ITN Productions is thrilled to be producing this ambitious series in the run up to the World Cup with A Brand Apart for Dave.?

The deal, put together by Neil Osborne, CEO of A Brand Apart Television, follows the company's most recent international shows for Procter & Gamble and King of Shaves. Osborne comments:

?We're delighted to be working with another prestigious international brand such as Kia, being able to deliver huge exposure from partnerships with leading networks all over the World. Brand funded programming is an excellent route to television for brands, especially when a single investment can roll out internationally and across multiple platforms.?

The AFP commission follows successful autumn launches from Dave's original commissions including Dave Gorman's Modern Life is Goodish, Ross Noble Freewheeling and Crackanory.

Ends-

For more information contact:

Lara Feinstein, Corporate Communications Coordinator

Gem Pinkney, Entertainment Publicist - Dave

Notes to Editors:

About Dave (www.joindave.co.uk / @joindave)

Satirical and edgy, Dave is the home of witty banter. Featuring the best in contemporary entertainment including Suits, QI, Red Dwarf X, Mock the Week and Have I Got News For You. Dave also showcases popular original series, such as Argumental, Dave's One Night Stand, Dara O Briain?s School of Hard Sums, Alexander Armstrong?s Big Ask, Crackanory, Dave Gorman Modern Life is Goodish and Ross Noble Freewheeling, all laden with the biggest names in British comedy. Where to find Dave: Sky channel 111, Virgin TV channel 128, Freeview 12.

About UKTV (pressoffice.uktv.co.uk / @UKTV_Press / corporate.uktv.co.uk)

UKTV is the multi-award winning media company that reaches over 42 million viewers per month. UKTV¹s ten imaginative channel brands - Watch, Dave, Gold, Alibi, Eden, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home and Good Food - include the most watched non-PSB channel, the most watched channel in the Factual genre and the most watched channels in the Lifestyle genre (Pay and Free). The company's most recent financial results showed a record-breaking year-end revenue of £262m, and operating profit at £71m.

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, 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.

A Brand Apart Television specialises in the creation, production and global distribution of advertiser funded programming. The Company was established in 2010 by its CEO Neil Osborne who was previously behind global television shows for Gillette, Unilever, Nissan, Adidas and Toyota. An experienced management team combine to create effective solutions and unique content opportunities, with television at the core, for multi-market brands and broadcasters alike. Under the business model, brands fund shows on the basis of pre-arranged international television exposure across all product markets, whilst broadcasters receive the programming free of licence fees. Recent clients include King of Shaves, Procter & Gamble, Warrior Sports and Saatchi & Saatchi NY.

About ITN Productions

ITN Productions creates multi-platform content for major global brands on broadcast, digital and corporate production. Clients that commission award-winning programmes from ITN Productions include major UK and international broadcasters such as ITV, the BBC, Channel 4, Sky, Channel 5, History and Discovery, with television commissions including The Agenda on ITV, Harrow ? A Very British School on Sky1, Climbing Great Buildings on BBC2, Mud Men on History and a contract to produce Dispatches for Channel 4. Entertainment content made by ITN Productions includes FYI Daily on ITV2, The Breakfast Fix on 4Music, entertainment bulletins on 5* and 5USA, The Showbiz 411 on YouTube. ITN Productions also creates news content for a wide range of clients such as, MSN, Virgin Media, Telegraph Media Group, The Independent, Metro, Daily Mail, Daily Express and Daily Star, and the Illiffe and MNA publishing groups. ITN News is on Facebook, is the most viewed news channel on YouTube and produces the citizen journalism channel Truthloader. In sport, ITN Productions produces Barclays Premier League in-game clips and highlights for News UK as well as content for SNTV. Corporate clients working with ITN Productions to create content include Proctor & Gamble, Department of Health and Virgin Active. For more information visit www.itnproductions.co.uk