BBC Earth covers MENA, Turkey in beIN distribution deal
Details
Rebecca Hawkes
| 29 March 2018

beIN Media has added factual channel BBC Earth to its Middle East and North African (MENA) direct-to-home TV service as well as its Turkish pay-TV platform Digiturk.


BBC Earth will be fully localised for beIN with a curated schedule and Arabic subtitling, and available 24 hours a day. It will carry the critically acclaimed natural history series Blue Planet II. The show's production team made 125 expeditions, visited 39 countries, filmed across every ocean and spent over 6,000 hours diving underwater to reveal the very latest discoveries in our oceans.

"Our expanded partnership with beIN marks an important step in BBC Earth's journey as a global brand as it increases its reach to a significant new audience across the MENA region," said Natasha Hussain, vice president and general manager for Middle East & Mediterranean region, BBC Worldwide.
"The BBC is uniquely positioned as the world leader in natural history and factual film making, with an unparalleled 60-year heritage in leading production of quality natural history programming. With beIN we are delighted to deliver world class production, creation and technological breakthroughs that BBC Earth has to offer," she added.

In addition to Blue Planet II, BBC Earth will offer MENA viewers the documentary Astronauts: The Toughest Job In The Universe, which follows 12 ordinary people as they take on a demanding training regime usually reserved for astronaut candidates.

The fifth series of Emmy Award-winning show Life Below Zero highlights the hardy characters who have chosen to live off the grid in Alaska, while Hunters of The South Seas follows the lives of people who live in a distant corner of the western Pacific called the Coral Triangle.

Following the content deal, BBC Earth will join pre-school kids channel CBeebies, which has been available on beIN across MENA since April 2016.