Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Bodyguard entertains new audiences during lockdown

02/06/2020

Bodyguard entertains new audiences during lockdown

Second Window rights to BBC One's Most-Watched Drama Since Records Began Snapped Up by Worldwide Buyers

2 June 2020 - Created by Jed Mercurio and produced by World Productions for BBC One and Netflix, the Golden Globe and BAFTA award-winning Bodyguard is making its way around the world for a second time following a flurry of deals with international broadcasters brokered by ITV Studios.

Applauded by critics the world over, second window rights to the six-part event TV series have been acquired by Seven Network in Australia, Vision TV in English-speaking Canada, Telequebec in French-speaking Canada, TVB in Hong Kong, Tohokushinsha Japan, Cineplex Thailand, CJ&M South Korea, TVNZ in New Zealand, France 2, ZDF and Edel Germany, RAI Italy, Paramount Network Spain, Friday! TV Channel Russia, RTS for French-speaking Switzerland, Virgin Media Ireland, HRT Croatia, RTV Slovenia, Latvian TV and Lithuanian Radio and Television. Sitting outside of Netflix's global footprint, China's Huanxi acquired the show in May last year.

Ruth Berry, Managing Director, Global Distribution at ITV Studios, said:

Bodyguard is a drama which needs little introduction, we're honoured to represent one of the UK's most phenomenal hits thanks to the brilliance of Jed Mercurio and World Productions and are delighted that it is being enjoyed by an even wider audience as a result of these additional sales.

ITV Studios has sold a range of its new, returning and classic scripted titles to international broadcasters in recent months. Sony Liv in India has acquired the BBC One dramas World on Fire, Noughts + Crosses (Mammoth Screen), The War of the Worlds (Mammoth Screen and Creasun), Oscar-nominated Jeff Pope's A Confession (ITV Studios Factual Drama for ITV), as well as all seasons of Agatha Christie's Poirot (a co-production of ITV Studios and WGBH Boston in association with Agatha Christie Ltd.) and Miss Marple (ITV Studios for ITV).

Seasons 1 - 5 of Mammoth Screen's Poldark have been picked up in China (AMC Encore), Russia (Yandex) and Greece (ERT); and seasons 1 - 6 of Endeavour in Korea (KTH) and South East Asia (BBC Player). Calamity Films' hit comedy for Sky, Brassic has been acquired in Russia (Yandex), Spain (Filmin), South East Asia (BBC Player), Korea (KTH) and Australia (ABC Comedy). Seasons 1-6 of the multi award-winning comedy from Eugene Levy and Daniel Levy Schitt's Creek (Not A Real Company Productions Inc. for CBC and Pop) have been sold to Scandinavia in a pan-regional deal with CMORE/TV4. Isolation Stories, a collection of four stories produced by Jeff Pope Drama during lockdown, has been acquired in Israel (DBS), Belgium (VRT) and Korea (KT Corp.)

The recipient of more that 15 prestigious awards globally and the BBC's biggest drama launch in more than a decade, the finale of Bodyguard consolidated to 15.2m (including non-TV viewing) making it the most watched drama since current records begun.

Bodyguard tells the fictional story of David Budd (Richard Madden), a heroic but volatile war veteran now working as a Specialist Protection Officer for the Royalty and Specialist Protection Branch of London's Metropolitan Police Service. When he is assigned to protect the ambitious and powerful Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes), whose politics stand for everything he despises, Budd finds himself torn between his duty and his beliefs. Responsible for her safety, is he actually her biggest threat?

Bodyguard was created and written by Jed Mercurio (Line of Duty) who also serves as executive producer alongside Simon Heath (Line of Duty, Save Me). It is directed by Thomas Vincent (The Tunnel) and John Strickland (Line of Duty, Bodies) and produced by Priscilla Parish (Line of Duty) and Eric Coulter (Shetland, Our Girl).

[end]

About ITV Studios

ITV Studios is a creator, producer and distributor of world-leading programmes that people can't get enough of. We connect millions of people every day and shape and reflect the world they live in, we are More Than TV.

ITV Studios is home to some of the best creative minds, crafting over 8,400 hours of original programming across 55 production labels. Our global footprint spans 13 countries including the UK, US, Australia, France, Germany, The Nordics, Italy and the Netherlands and our global distribution business sells our catalogue of 46,000+ hours to broadcasters and platforms around the world.

ITV Studios is part of ITV PLC, which includes the UK's largest commercial broadcaster.
LINK: https://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/bodyguard-entertains-ne...
See more stories from itv

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

15/04/2026

Winter Olympics, Super Bowl Power NBCU-Versant to Gold Medal Performance in Nielsen's February Gauge Reports

NBCU-Versant notches 13.1% of TV viewing in February, its best since August 2024...

15/04/2026

Nielsen CMI shows New Zealand's over-65s are a growing, cashed-up and still-working audience brands can't ignore

New data reveals older Kiwis are financially resilient, loyal to local products,...

15/04/2026

aconnic launches ACCEED 4430 10 Gigabit system for high volume enterprise and business service aggregation

aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, announces the market launch of the ACCE...

15/04/2026

Autocue to Mark 2026 NAB Show Debut of its New PTZ Prompter

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Locality Deploys Nielsen's Media Data Engine

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Viant Announces Agreement to Acquire TVision

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Evergent introduces Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platfor...

Evergent introduces its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform, transforming how subscription businesses across direct-to-consumer streaming, pay-TV, telecommun...

15/04/2026

CentralCast Delivers Breakthrough Efficiencies to Public...

Harmonic's XOS Media Processor Delivers Exceptional Video Quality to More than Half of U.S. Public Media Viewership Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announce...

15/04/2026

DPA N Series Wireless System Unlocks Duplex Gap and Guard...

LONGMONT, COLORADO, APRIL 15, 2026 DPA Microphones N Series Digital Wireless System users in North America can now take full advantage of the system's exc...

15/04/2026

Cobalt Iron Launches Compass Tape Gateway Modernizing IBM...

Cobalt Iron, a leading provider of SaaS-based enterprise data protection, today announced the launch of Compass Tape Gateway (CTG), a transformative enhancemen...

15/04/2026

Disguise to Showcase Cutting-Edge Experience Tech for Sports, Broadcast and More at NAB 2026

Disguise to Showcase Cutting-Edge Experience Tech for Sports, Broadcast and More...

15/04/2026

Arooj Aftab Makes the Music She Wants to Hear

Arooj Aftab Makes the Music She Wants to Hear The singular artist explores the juxtaposition of grief and joy, dark and light, in her distinctive sound. Apri...

15/04/2026

Panasonic, NEP Partner on IP-Based Live Production

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Encompass Digital Media Powers Global Cloud Transformatio...

Interra Systems, a provider of end-to-end quality assurance solutions for the digital media industry, is proud to announce its central role in the digital trans...

15/04/2026

Viaccess-Orca Powers MasOranges Multi-Brand TV Expansion...

VO Integrates Client-Side and Server-Side Ad Technologies with its Secure Video Player and Segmentation Tools, Leveraging Broadpeak's SSAI and BPK SmartLib ...

15/04/2026

TMT Insights Unveils AI at NAB 2026

TMT Insights, a leader in professional services and software development for the media and entertainment (M&E) industry, today announced the launch of TMT AI at...

15/04/2026

Encompass Digital Media and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure E...

Encompass Digital Media, a global leader in managed broadcast and cloud-based media services, today announced an expanded partnership with Oracle Cloud Infrastr...

15/04/2026

Middleman Software Debuts PhaseLock Technology and Expand...

Middleman Software, a leading provider of signaling and synchronization solutions for broadcast and streaming workflows, today announced it will unveil PhaseLoc...

15/04/2026

Deity Announces PR-4 Compact Field Recorder

Deity Microphones today announced the PR-4, a compact six-track field recorder featuring four inputs, 32-bit float recording, advanced routing, and a workflow-f...

15/04/2026

Blackmagic Design Announces Fairlight Live

Blackmagic Design Announces Fairlight Live Brie Clayton April 15, 2026 0 Comments Powerful software-based live audio mixer with support for SMPTE-2110...

15/04/2026

Haivision Launches Falkon X4 5G Transmitters

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

JB&A Spotlights Exhibitors Ahead of Pre-NAB 2026 Technology Event

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Wave Central, EVS Announce SMPTE ST 2110 Interop Collaboration

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Top Reason for Subscribing to Pay TV Is Live News and TV, Survey Finds

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

NAB Leadership Foundation Honors Outstanding Broadcasters

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Wisycom Expands MPR60 With New Multichannel IFB Mode

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Thomas Riedel Acquires Premium Manufacturer ARRI

Strategic Alignment With the Riedel Group for Innovation and Growth Thomas Riedel, founder and owner of Riedel Communications and the Riedel Group, has acqui...

15/04/2026

Iyuno Deploys SDVI Rally Platform to Accelerate and Scale...

SDVI, the leading platform provider for cloud-native media supply chains, today announced that the company's Rally platform has been deployed by Iyuno Media...

15/04/2026

Frequency Leads the Industry in Live Local News on FAST

Frequency, the engine behind many of the worlds leading streaming television channels, has become the platform of choice for leading U.S. broadcasters bringing ...

15/04/2026

Harmonic Introduces Breakthrough AI Orchestration Service...

New Service Simplifies Integration of AI Applications with Exceptional Reliability and Security SAN JOSE, Calif. April 14, 2026 Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) t...

15/04/2026

VIDI and Media Links Bring Scalable IP Transport to Germa...

During the 2025 off-season, VIDI completed a major upgrade of the broadcast infrastructure across all 36 stadiums in Germany's 1st and 2nd Bundesliga. The p...

15/04/2026

Clear-Com Introduces Transformational Arcadia and Eclipse...

Clear-Com announced significant updates to its award-winning Arcadia Central Station as well as enhancements to the Eclipse HX Digital Matrix System now runn...

15/04/2026

Shotoku Introduces the World to Aura P2 PTZ Prompter Panner at NAB SHOW 2026

Shotoku Introduces the World to Aura P2 PTZ Prompter Panner at NAB SHOW 2026 Brie Clayton April 15, 2026 0 Comments New system removes PTZ pan restric...

15/04/2026

LiveU Announces Expanded Collaboration with Sony at NAB Show, Adding Direct File Workflow Integration

LiveU Announces Expanded Collaboration with Sony at NAB Show, Adding Direct File...

15/04/2026

This 24-Hour Performance Art Piece Needs Your Participation

This 24-Hour Performance Art Piece Needs Your Participation Keefer Glenshaws latest project is about collaborating with the Berklee community and beyond. Apr...

15/04/2026

Five Decades of Box Office Intelligence: Comscore Celebrates 50 Years of Movie Measurement

Five Decades of Box Office Intelligence: Comscore Celebrates 50 Years of Movie M...

15/04/2026

Rethinking AI TCO: Why Cost per Token Is the Only Metric That Matters

Traditional data centers only stored, retrieved and processed data. In the generative and agentic AI era, these facilities have evolved into AI token factories....

15/04/2026

RT announces new crime drama The Yank starring Kate Mulgrew and Colm Meaney

Two Cities Television and Keeper Pictures to produce six-part series in association with Screen Ireland for RT and ITV Studios RT has commissioned Two Citie...

15/04/2026

RT unveils The Signal' a specially commissioned 60-second film to celebrate RT100

RT 100 RT unveils The Signal' a specially commissioned 60-second film ...

15/04/2026

New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs

The NAB Show 2026 trade show, running April 18-22 in Las Vegas, is set to showcase a wave of new features and optimizations for top video editing applications. ...

14/04/2026

ToolsOnAir and Omnistream Bring Mobile SRT Contribution into Professional 24/7 Playout and Live News Workflows

ToolsOnAir and Omnistream Bring Mobile SRT Contribution into Professional 24/7 P...

14/04/2026

NAB 2026: Haivision Launches Falkon X4 5G Mobile Video Transmitter

Haivision has announced the Falkon X4, a 5G mobile video transmitter for live broadcast and remote production. The device will be showcased at NAB Show 2026. ...

14/04/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Stripe TVs Matthew Pavey on Making Live-Production Tech More Portable, Intuitive, and Accessible

Founded by veterans of the production-truck world, Stripe TV was born out of a d...

14/04/2026

Studio Berlin Adds LDX 135 and LDX 180 Camera Systems from Grass Valley

Grass Valley has expanded its partnership with Studio Berlin, supplying 12 LDX 135 UHD/HDR camera systems and 12 LDX 180 Super 35mm cinematic cameras, including...