91热爆

91热爆 Worldwide Channels today announces further exciting new commissions for its international channels 91热爆 Entertainment, 91热爆 Knowledge, CBeebies, 91热爆 HD and UKTV (Australia). The news follows Jana Bennett鈥檚 announcement at the Banff Media Festival of the business鈥檚 plans to invest in more high quality original content for its portfolio of global networks.聽

91热爆 Worldwide Channels' commissioning slate has now grown to 112 hours of content for 2011, up from 34 hours in 2010. This year-on-year increase underlines the growing commitment to funding original content alongside the core proposition of taking the best of British content to the world.

The next new series greenlit for 91热爆 Worldwide's international channels are Year of Adventures, Dripping In Chocolate and kids' property Mr Bloom's Nursery.

Ben Fogle鈥檚 action-packed Year of Adventures (5 x 50') sees him tackling a series of challenges in the US, Europe and Australia, and is inspired by the Lonely Planet book of the same name. As host, expert and crash-test dummy, Ben demonstrates how true adventure is done. His exploits include kayaking with orcas in British Columbia, boarding down the slopes of a Nicaraguan volcano, rafting the snowmelts of Turkish Anatolia and kicking up dust in a desert buggy race across Australia鈥檚 Outback.聽

Year of Adventures is produced by 91热爆 Bristol, with Robi Dutta 鈥� 91热爆 Bristol's Executive Producer for Factual 鈥� and Sue Norton 鈥� Head of Lonely Planet Television 鈥� as executive producers. The series will air on international feeds of 91热爆 Knowledge, 91热爆 HD and 91热爆 Entertainment in January 2012.

Feature-length murder mystery Dripping in Chocolate (1 x 90') is in production for 91热爆 Worldwide's Australian channel UKTV. A delicious mix of murder and love, the drama sees a detective and a chocolatier form an unlikely duo in order to find out who killed the girl discovered outside the chocolate shop.聽聽聽

Dripping in Chocolate is a Southern Star production, and will premiere on UKTV in April 2012.

For pre-school channel CBeebies, two series of Mr Bloom鈥檚 Nursery (26 x 20鈥�) are the latest in-house investments for 91热爆 Worldwide Channels.

Set in a colourful, fertile allotment run by the green-fingered Mr Bloom (Ben Faulks), Mr Bloom鈥檚 Nursery combines live action and puppets to show how three to six year olds can learn from the experience of nurturing plants and vegetables.

Produced by the 91热爆, this brand new show will air on international feeds of CBeebies in 2012.

Speaking today about the upcoming commissions, David Weiland, 91热爆 Worldwide鈥檚 SVP Programming & TV Channels said, 鈥淲e are now delivering on our strategy to commission both local and global programming for our international channels with this brilliant and varied slate of new titles. Constantly adding to our programming mix keeps our channels compelling, and these new programme commissions will complement the high quality British content that we already feature.聽 The numerous new commissions announced in recent weeks underline the fact that 91热爆 Worldwide Channels now has the scale and ambition to get solidly into original production. This is only the start and we have lots of other ideas in development and hope to announce more throughout 2011.鈥�

These three shows join the slate of new commissions announced by the business this year and now in production:

Come Dine With Me South Africa (10 x 50鈥�), a local version of ITV Studios鈥� hit format, features contestants from Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. Come Dine With Me South Africa is being made by South African production company, Rapid Blue, and is set to premiere on 91热爆 Entertainment this autumn.

In Free Rein (1 x 50鈥�) screen legends Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward (The Thorn Birds) go in search of the spirit of Australia on the ultimate horseback adventure across The Kimberley, the Outback鈥檚 last frontier. Free Rein is a Lonely Planet TV and Freehand production for international feeds of 91热爆 Knowledge, 91热爆 HD and 91热爆 Entertainment.

The Kangaroo Gang: Thieves by Appointment (1 x 90鈥� and 2 x 60鈥�) 鈥� for UKTV in Australia and 91热爆 Knowledge globally 鈥� will tell the story of the brazen Australian shoplifting gang, one of the most spectacularly successful in history. 聽The title comes from The Full Box productions and is based on the book 鈥楰ing of Thieves鈥�, by best-selling author Adam Shand. 聽聽

The business鈥� first comedy pilot, Some Say Love (1 x 30鈥�), is also in development for UKTV in Australia. Some Say Love is an observational sketch-comedy series about the universal ups and downs of relationships, produced by Freehand.

Finally, in the kids鈥� space, Mr Bloom鈥檚 Nursery joins the steady list of investment in 2011 which include: Andy鈥檚 Wild Adventures (40 x 15鈥�), made by the 91热爆鈥檚 Natural History Unit; Baby Jake (26 x 11鈥�); Jollywobbles (13 x 9鈥�); series one of Zingzillas Zing Bop (20 x 5鈥�); series two of Gigglebiz (16 x 15鈥�), series two of ZingZillas (52 x 11鈥�); series three of Show Me Show Me(15 x 28鈥�); and series six of Nina & the Neurons (25 x 14鈥�).

All titles will make their global debuts in 2011 and 2012.

Harriet Otoo