Blue Ant Media’s wildlife brand Love Nature has launched as a premium linear subscription channel across Australia on Fetch TV.

The deal was brokered by Jon Penn of Sydney-based Future of Media Advisory, according to a news release. Love Nature will offer week-long Love Earth event programming to Fetch Knowledge and Ultimate Channel Packs subscribers, beginning April 17, in honour of Earth Day.

The event will feature the April 22 premiere of Chasing the Rains (pictured). Additional Love Nature programs include Uptown Otters (6 x 60 minutes), Planet Shark (3 x 60 minutes) and season two of New Kids in the Wild (5 x 60 minutes).

Blue Ant and global multi-platform media company World of Wonder have also added their free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel, Drag Race Universe, to Amazon’s AVOD Freevee in the U.S.

The deal follows Blue Ant’s partnership with World of Wonder to launch Drag Race Universe on Vizio WatchFree+. Programs available on the Drag Race Universe channel include Canada’s Drag Race seasons two and three (19 x 60 minutes); RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World (6 x 60 minutes); and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK  seasons two and three (20 x 60 minutes).

Media Ranch

Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) Alternative has optioned the format Watch! for the U.S. from Montreal-headquartered prodco and distributor Media Ranch.

Created by Dan Munday (Survivor, Steve Harvey’s Funderdome) and John Kirhoffer (Survivor), the part variety show and part memory game pits two rival teams against each other to answer questions based on live onstage performances. The format has been optioned in 13 major territories around the world, according to a news release, including a deal with ProSieben in Germany that saw the show premiere in 2020.

Off The Fence

Quebec-based Indigenous-led prodco Terre Innue’s four-part docuseries Telling Our Story has been added to international distributor Off The Fence’s slate for MIPTV in Cannes.

Directed by Terre Innue’s president Kim O’Bomsawin (Call Me Human, Quiet Killing), the series is produced by Francine Allaire, who also serves as co-executive producer alongside O’Bomsawin, Alexandre Bacon, Ian Boyd, Josée Rock and Florent Vollant. The docuseries (4 x 52 minutes) examines the Indigenous experience in Canada through the eyes of 11 of Canada’s First Peoples, according to a news release.

Telling Our Story is slated to air on CBC this spring, said Allaire in statement. The French version Laissez-nous raconter aired on Radio-Canada in November and December 2022. Both the English and French versions of the docuseries will be sold internationally at  MIPTV, which runs from April 17 to 20.

Lost Jen

Ontario filmmaker Jade Stone’s dark web comedy series Lost Jen has been acquired for distribution in the U.S. and worldwide by streamer Reel Women’s Network (RWN).

The Jamaican-Canadian screenwriter, producer and director — who was born Sasha Alexander but goes by Jade Stone professionally — tells Playback Daily she self-funded the live-action project on a budget of about $8,000 through credit, a part-time job and her income support through the Ontario Disability Support Program.

Stone is director, writer and producer on the 12 x 5-minute Lost Jen, about a millennial who navigates schizoaffective disorder, a tough post-COVID economy and living with her dad. Inspired by Stone’s own experiences as a millennial with schizoaffective disorder, it debuted this past February on her Rire Au Cinema YouTube account and website of the same name, where she hopes to also launch several more projects she has in development at her prodco Rire Fatale Films.

Stone says she brokered the deal with RWN herself and plans to launch six episodes on the platform in June.

With files from Victoria Ahearn

Image courtesy of Blue Ant Media