China’s Youku Tudo picks up The Night Manager


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Rebecca Hawkes

| 21 April 2016




The US$30 million television adaptation of John Le Carre’s spy thriller The Night Manager, which launched in the US this week, has been acquired by the Alibaba-owned online platform Youku Tudou.



The six-part British-American drama, which aired on the BBC in February and March to average overnight audiences of 6.3 million per episode, stars Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie.

As well as the new deal with Youku Tudou, producer The Ink Factory and its agents at WME-IMG said FranceTV has also recently picked up the thriller’s rights in France.

The Night Manager has already been sold to Tele Munchen Gruppe for German-speaking Europe, C More and TV4 for the Nordic countries, DR in Denmark, Sky Italia in Italy, BBC First and SBS for Australia, TV3 for New Zealand and AMC International for Iberia, Eastern Europe, Russia, Asia (excluding Japan), Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.

“We are thrilled to see the incredible global response to The Night Manager, which has now been sold to networks covering over 188 countries,” said Simon Cornwall, co-founder of The Ink Factory and the son of John Le Carre.

“It has been wonderful working with IMG to ensure that this internationally resonant series is seen and enjoyed by audiences the world over, and we are proud to have built such a strong group of broadcast partners.”

WME-IMG partner Chris Rice added: “The Night Manager has captured the imagination of broadcasters around the world, and we are delighted to have secured deals in these key territories with Youku Tudou as our partner in China and the French broadcast network FranceTV. These partnerships underscore the power of our worldwide sales force as we continue to explore all platforms to bring this fantastic series to the widest audience possible.”