MIPCOM: HBO Nordic Acquires Starz Original Series

Agreement will bring 'Spartacus' and other fare to the new Nordic venture

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/8/2012 5:35:21 PM

HBO Nordic has signed a major deal with Starz Media Worldwide Distribution that will give it rights to a wide variety of Starz original series and TV movies for pay TV and SVOD.

HBO Nordic is a joint venture between HBO and Peter Ekelund/Parsifal International that is planning to launch pay TV and SVOD services in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.

The Starz agreement will give HBO Nordic access to Spartacus for HBO Nordic's SVOD services and the series, Magic City, for pay TV and SVOD.

Additional original programming for pay TV and SVOD includes other popular originals (Party Down, Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis, Head Case), TV movies (Jersey Shore Shark Attack, The 12 Wishes for Christmas), and TV series (Painkiller Jane, Masters of Horror, Masters of Science Fiction), the companies reported.

The deal also includes exclusive rights to future Starz original series and additional movie content.

"HBO Nordic is very pleased to license a wide collection of original series and other TV and movie content from Starz," said Hervé Payan, CEO of HBO Nordic in a statement. "Magic City was one of the primary featured series aired exclusively at our upcoming launch.  We are also very excited to have licensed Spartacus for SVOD, along with several future original series from Starz exclusively for our customers."