Seven and Scandi PSBs among buyers calling up Operation Dark Phone

Operation Dark Phone: Murder by Text, The Garden’s inside story on a major global police sting, has been picked up Australia’s Seven Network and a raft of Scandinavian PSBs in ITV Studios’ first wave of sales.

The four-part Channel 4 series has sold to seven territories in total, with Sweden’s SVT, DR (Denmark), NRK in Norway, Finland’s YLE and RTL Group streamer Videoland (The Netherlands and Luxembourg) joining Seven in acquiring the title.

Operation Dark Phone: Murder By Text takes audiences into the world of serious organised crime, with exclusive access inside the UK’s National Crime Agency, detailing their intricate plan to hack global crime gangs’ encrypted phone network.

In 2020, international police managed to secretly hack into phone system used by organised criminal groups all over the world. Over a period of 74 days, the messages sent and received on 60,000 handsets were covertly captured, with the investigation becoming one of the biggest ever international law enforcement operations.

Produced by ITVS-owned The Garden, the doc forms a key part of ITVS’s Mipcom unscripted slate, with executive vice-president of global sales and commercial strategy and global partnerships Tom Clark noting the “premium access crime series” elevates the producer-distributor’s line-up, with the “jaw-dropping series set to grip audiences across the world”.