National Film Board

The NFB has inked a deal with the New York Times that will see its short documentary Now Is The Time (pictured) stream on the publication’s Op-Docs platform. Now Is the Time is directed by Burnaby, BC-based Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter and produced by Selwyn Jacob of the NFB’s BC & Yukon Studio, with the NFB handling distribution. The non-exclusive agreement represents the first time the NFB has licensed a project to New York Times Op-Docs platform. The 16-minute film, which has screened at 2019 TIFF, VIFF, Sundance, San Francisco American Indian Film and imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts festivals revisits the raising of the first totem pole on Haida Gwaii, Canada, in almost a century.

Nelvana

Channels in Europe and Africa have picked up distribution rights to Agent Binky: Pets of the Universe (52 x 11 minutes). The 3D animated series is produced by redknot, a joint venture between Corus Entertainment-owned prodco and distributor Nelvana and Discovery. France’s TF1 and WarnerMedia-owned Boomerang channel, which broadcasts in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, will air the series beginning in spring 2020, as well as Discovery Kids. Agent Binky: Pets of the Universe is based on the graphic novels from Corus-owned publisher Kids Can Press and follows the titular Binky, who works with other pets to save their humans from interstellar dangers. It first aired on Treehouse in Canada in September 2019.

Blue Ant Media

Turkish pay-tv platform D-Smart has picked up the rights to Blue Ant Media’s Love Nature channel. The channel has been fully localized in Turkish and is available for subscribers in Turkey and Northern Cyprus. It will later be launched on OTT service D-Smart Go. The channel was made available in Turkey in early 2019 when it was licensed by Turkcell platform TV+. The channel has had a number of deals in 2020, with sales in Russia and Slovakia. Programs available on Love Channel include Great Blue Wild (Blue Ant Studios) and Dogs with Extraordinary Jobs (Oxford Scientific Films).