BANFF — BBC Worldwide is to take a minority 25% stake in Temple Street Productions in a deal that allows the British partner to get its formats into Canada and Temple Street to extend its international reach.

The deal hands Temple Street principals Ivan Schneeberg and David Fortier a first look at formats for which BBC Worldwide holds Canadian rights.

Toronto-based Temple Street is currently producing the Canadian version of the BBC series How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? for the CBC.

BBC Worldwide, in turn, gains access to Temple Street’s scripted and unscripted programming and formats for overseas exploitation. BBC Worldwide last week acquired the international distribution rights to Temple Street’s upcoming CBC drama The Session.

Hilary Read, BBC Worldwide Canada’s COO based in Toronto, who, with Wayne Garvie, managing director of BBC Worldwide content and production, got together with Schneeberg and Fortier at Banff in 2007, said the deal will plug Temple Street into the British network’s expanding international production and distribution effort.

Read told Playback Daily that Schneerberg and Fortier, both former entertainment lawyers with Goodmans, bring to the table a Canadian take on TV programming and the ability to structure international co-productions.

‘They know the creative world in a way that we [BBC Worldwide] don’t,’ she said.

Temple Street will work closely with BBC Worldwide content creators in Los Angeles, New York City, London and elsewhere internationally, Read said.