91Èȱ¬

91Èȱ¬ Worldwide has today agreed a three-year distribution partnership deal with factual media company Ten Alps plc, which will see the entire Ten Alps' broadcast companies distributed through a single distributor for the first time.

The deal includes leading TV documentary production companies Brook Lapping, Blakeway, Below the Radar and Films of Record, covering landmark documentary, contemporary history, current affairs and observational documentary series respectively.

It covers the work of Brian Lapping CBE, Anne Lapping CBE, Norma Percy, Denys Blakeway, Fiona Stourton and Roger Graef OBE – between them responsible for many of the most iconic British TV documentaries.

91Èȱ¬ Worldwide's Indie Unit will provide development investment funding and will work closely with the Ten Alps companies to help identify and support international opportunities within their respective development slates.

In return, 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide will receive an exclusive first-look deal to distribute commissioned Ten Alps' programmes to broadcasters around the world, via their global network of sales teams.

Alex Connock, CEO of Ten Alps, said: "We made expansion of the international potential of our programming a key goal for this year. Working with 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide, with their unique footprint and truly global expertise, is exactly the relationship we were looking for."

Wayne Garvie, Director of Content & Production, 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide, said: "Ten Alps is one of the UK's most exciting media companies. Their stable provides amazing breadth in documentary, great programming made by great producers and directors. It's programming with huge international appeal and a perfect complement to our existing catalogue."

High-profile programmes delivered by Ten Alps companies so far in 2009 have included Iran and the West (91Èȱ¬2), The Future of Food (91Èȱ¬2), The Madoff Hustle (91Èȱ¬2), Murder Mansion (C4), China's Capitalist Revolution (91Èȱ¬2), Mountbatten (UK History and RTE) and several Dispatches for C4.

NOTES TO EDITORS
About Ten Alps' production companies

Brook Lapping
An internationally-acclaimed independent documentary production company, specialising in landmark diplomatic television series such as The Second Russian Revolution, Watergate, The Death of Yugoslavia, Israel and the Arabs, Elusive Peace and Iran and the West.
Participants such as Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Slobodan Milosevic, Tony Blair, Ariel Sharon, Vladimir Putin, Francois Mitterrand, Boris Yeltsin, Mikhail Gorbachev and Henry Kissinger have revealed what really happened behind closed doors.
The company has also produced definitive series on British political leaders including Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair and high-rating drama-documentaries for Discovery US.

Blakeway
A multi-award winning independent production company, creating high quality, current affairs and contemporary history programmes.
Blakeway has produced numerous blue chip documentaries for major British and international broadcasters. Critical and ratings successes include The Queen's Story, Hidden Treasure Houses, Rivers of Blood, 1929: The Great Crash, Fighting Passions, Going Postal, Unseen Gaza, Children of the Congo, Mission Impossible, The Secret of the Austrian Cellar and The Gangster and the Pervert Peer.

Films of Record
Founded in 1979 by Roger Graef. OBE, producer of some of the best-known observational documentaries in British television history.
Renowned projects include: Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go, Welcome to Potters Bar, Murder Blues, Breaking the Cycle, My Heart Belongs to Dad, The Protectors and Who Killed PC Blakelock?
Recent projects have included Murder Mansion and Panorama: May Contain Nuts.

Below the Radar
A TV production company set up in 2006 in Belfast by award-winning journalists and TV producers Trevor Birney and Ruth O'Reilly.
Specialising in current affairs and hard-edged factual output, the company now has a full-time staff of ten and has produced films for the 91Èȱ¬, RTÉ, Channel 4 and Sky as well as on-line news and other digital content. It was acquired by Ten Alps in early 2009.

Chris Charlton