France TV Boards BBC & PBS Nature Doc ‘An Hour On Earth’

EXCLUSIVE: French public broadcaster France Télévisions has gotten on board An Hour On Earth, the four-part natural history series for BBC Two, iPlayer and PBS.

Fremantle is across distribution and sealed the presale to France TV for the series, which is produced by Offspring Films. The series will premiere in 2027.

The factual series utilizes pioneering filming techniques to capture nature’s fleeting magic hours, meaning those parts of the day when animals spring into action, such as the rush hour just after dawn in the Kalahari, the hour after rainfall in the Amazon, and low tide on Australia’s coral reefs.

The team behind the series said the aim is to shift between locations over the four instalments to show how life on Earth is shaped by these high-stakes moments.

With France TV on board the BBC and PBS project, there are now a trio of prominent public broadcasters attached. Fremantle is taking the show out to buyers at the likes of Sunnyside, the docs-focused festival and market taking place this week.

Al De Azpiazu, SVP Distribution at Fremantle across French and German Speaking Europe, Italy, Spain & Portugal, said: “Combining premium natural history storytelling with a distinctive time-led concept, this series has strong appeal for international broadcasters – and this presale is a great example of that demand.”

Caroline Behar, Head of France TV International Coproductions and Acquisitions, added: “This series is a distinctive proposition in the field of natural history. It promises a bold aesthetic journey but also an ecologic consciousness awakening. France TV is proud to partner with Fremantle on such a high-level production. Cinematic, seamless shoots will offer our audience an immersive experience with mother nature.”

An Hour On Earth was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual, and the Commissioning Editor is Tom Watt-Smith, Head of Commissioning, Natural History. The PBS Executive in Charge of Production is Diana El-Osta.