National Geographic Television International (NGTI) today unveils its key program launches for MipTV 2010.

Leading the slate of 60 new hours is ALBINO UNITED (1 x 52), a new title from National Geographic Television, with multi award-winning producer Nick Broomfield at the helm. Albino United looks at the persecution of albinos in Tanzania and one man’s attempts to educate and communicate to the masses through the medium of football. A fascinating look at how superstition and rituals pervade modern African society, NGTI expects this show to be a ‘must buy’ for broadcasters planning football-related programming around this summer’s World Cup in South Africa.

Key history launches include MACHU PICCHU DECODED (1 x 52), a programme which uses recent findings to create new explanations for how and why Machu Picchu was built, in the run up to the 100th anniversary of its discovery by Hiram Bingham in 2011. VAMPIRES IN VENICE (1 x 52) is a fascinating, CSI-style investigation on a 400-year old skeleton, found in unusual circumstances. Was he a vampire from the time of the Black Death – and if so, what did he look like? From the more recent past, NGTI presents SONDERKOMMANDO: THE LIVING DEAD OF AUSCHWITZ, produced by Filip Media and Biokissfilm. The Sonderkommando were the young Jewish men forced to help the SS in the Nazi extermination camps of World War II. This moving film records a former Sonderkommando, shortly before his death, as he talks about his duties and they way he was treated by camp inmates and the SS. Most Sonderkommando did not survive the war and because of their controversial role, few have ever spoken about the horrors of what they were forced to do. This makes this film a rare and important historical document.

Natural history remains an important part of NGTI’s slate with new shows from both NGT and a range of leading independent producers. New partners this time include Road Media with SWAMP TROOP (1 x 52), a film that follows a troop of baboons in the Okavango Delta and Aquavision TV Productions with four wildlife programmes: SAVUTI: PREDATOR BATTLEGROUND; LION ARMY; THE LAST LIONESS and MOTHER WARTHOG – all 1 x 50. New from NGT are ORCA KILLING SCHOOL, DAM BEAVERS, GRIZZLY CAULDRON and MONSTER CROCS OF THE MESOZOIC (all 1 x 52) – a part-natural history, part-science show that uses new discoveries to reveal why crocodiles survived until the present day and dinosaurs did not.

Science is also a full slate for this market. Lead programmes in this genre include SCIENCE FOR FUTURE WORLD LEADERS: NUCLEAR THREAT and SCIENCE FOR FUTURE WORLD LEADERS: EMP BOMB. These hour-long specials, based on the best-selling book by Professor Richard Muller – Physics for Future Presidents – tell you what you’d need to know – in a high-tech, yet accessible way – if you ran the country. WORLD’S TOUGHEST FIXES (12 x 52) returns for a second season, with host Sean Riley dealing with some of the biggest mechanical problems on the planet, while THE HUMAN FAMILY TREE (1 X 52) travels across continents – and generations – to investigate how 200 random people on the same block in New York are all cousins in the ‘human family’. Finally, IMMORTAL (1 x 52) from December Films, in association with Pemberton Films, is an intriguing, high-end science programme that looks at the work of Professor Elizabeth Blackburn into the connections between stress, ageing and cancer and ‘young DNA’. Professor Blackburn won a Nobel Prize in 2009 and has recently been made an advisor to President Obama.

Maurice van Sabben, president of NGTI comments: “High-end factual programming featuring new discoveries, great science and compelling stories has fared well during the recent downturn and all the signs for 2010 are that this will continue. The shows in our MipTV slate tick all these boxes and we are positive of a strong market, if the early interest in this new programming is anything to go by.

“Yet again we are proud to represent the unique output from National Geographic Television, with its exclusive access to unusual stories and award-winning filmmakers – as well as the growing range of leading independent producers from around the world who make strong programming that fits with our growing factual catalogue.”

About National Geographic Television International (NGTI)
NGTI is a wholly-owned subsidiary of National Geographic Ventures, the commercial arm of the National Geographic Society. Based in London, NGTI currently licenses more than 2,000 programme titles to broadcasters around the globe, across a diverse and ever-growing range of genres, including: Natural History; History; Environment; Science; People & Places; Adventure and Current Affairs/Society. In addition to licensing programmes produced by National Geographic Television, NGTI also licenses programmes made by some of the world’s leading independent producers.

Contact:

Michelle Waldron VP of Marketing & Communications + 44 (0) 20 7751 7578/ 07768 568970 Contact Michelle via email

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