Chinese SVoD giants land BBC’s Parenthood

The four major Chinese SVoD platforms iQiyi, Youku, Bilibili, and Tencent Video have picked up rights to forthcoming David Attenborough-narrated BBC natural history series Parenthood in a unique platform deal struck by All3Media International.

The streaming quartet will launch the five-part Silverback Films’ series in a non-exclusive digital deal, while state broadcaster China Media Group will air the series on its documentary channel, CCTV-9.

The agreement, brokered by All3MI’s APAC office, will ensure a comprehensive audience for the blue-chip title across linear and VoD platforms in China.

Silverback’s landmark series explores the natural world’s response to one of life’s greatest challenge. Filmed over a three-year period across six continents, the 8K-shot series unpacks the drama, danger and joy of animal parenthood in a rapidly changing world.

The pan-China deal is one of numerous distribution agreements sealed for Parenthood by All3MI across five continents.

Elsewhere in APAC, Japan’s NHK - the local co-pro partner on the series – will be launching a special version this summer, while Now TV (Hong Kong), TVNZ and Network Ten (Australia) have also picked up the series in the region. Warner Bros Discovery platforms have also picked up windows in select APAC regions.

Across Europe, Nordic PSBs NRK (Norway), SVT (Sweden), Denmark’s DR and YLE in Finland have acquired Parenthood, which will also travel to Telefonica (Spain), SIC (Portugal), France Télévisions, SH Channel 8 (Israel) and HRT (Croatia).

Canal+ Polska, Latvian Television, MTVA (Hungary) and ERR (Estonia) have taken the doc, with Discovery Asharq licensing it across Middle East & North Africa.

For the Americas, WNET Group has acquired the series for the US, where it will air on PBS’s Nature strand, while Canadian PSB CBC has picked it up for linear and VoD (CBC Gem). WBD has secured a pan-regional deal for Latin America.

Parenthood was commissioned for BBC1 and iPlayer by specialist factual chief Jack Bootle. The series producer and director is Jeff Wilson, while Keith Scholey exec produces. The production manager is Tara Knowles.

Rachel Job, senior vice-president of unscripted at All3MI, said: “I’m delighted to see Parenthood leaving its footprint around the world. This groundbreaking documentary delivers must-see viewing, using stunning visuals to immerse audiences in the ever-changing and often dangerous world of animal parenting.”