All the latest news from the global content industry on Tuesday, 15 April

 

Prime Video acquires true crime package

Amazon Prime Video has acquired a package of 10 true crime documentaries from Sphere Abacus for its UK & Ireland audiences. Six of the titles are produced by Woodcut Media.

They are feature docs The Murder of Joanna Yeates, The Crossbow Cannibal and Confessions of a Female Serial Killer, and two-parters Krays: London’s Gangsters, Murder in Concrete and Murdered or Missing?.

The other titles are Yeti Television’s feature doc Surviving the Tunisia Beach Attack, Wag Entertainment’s two-parter Murderer Behind the Mask, Middlechild Productions’ feature doc The Facebook Honeytrap: Catching a Killer and Blink Films’ two-parter The Wimbledon Killer. The deal was brokered by Sphere Abacus’ head of acquisitions Will Stapley.

 

Max launches in Turkey

Max is now live and available to stream in Turkey, allowing customers to watch Warner Bros Discovery’s expanded content offering including the second series of The Last of Us and the final series of The Handmaid’s Tale.

The service is available in Turkey via WBD’s streaming service BluTV, with existing direct customers able to sign into the platform to access thousands more titles than were previously available.

The launch coincides with the announcement of a trio of new Turkish local originals: Anatomy of Chaos, Jasmin and Feride.

 

BBCS to launch new-look Dutch drama channel

BBC Studios is to rebrand its premium drama channel BBC First in the Netherlands as BBC NL, aiming to create a service that is specifically designed for Dutch audiences.

Launching on 15 May, the new-look BBC NL will continue to provide subtitled British dramas including All Creatures Great and Small, Miss Scarlet, Silent Witness, Call the Midwife and Beyond Paradise - as selected by the local team in Amsterdam.

BBCS’ senior vice president and general manager of Benelux and Nordics Bram Husken said: “We believe that there is an opportunity to bring our world class storytelling to an even wider audience. Evolving to BBC NL articulates to audiences that this is a service curated specifically for the Dutch audience, with a bespoke programming line-up of some of BBC Studios’ most popular and well-nurtured brands.”