Discovery Networks Asia Pacific has bought 12 hours of factual content – including two series co-produced with China’s LIC – from Germany’s Autentic, the one-time partner in would-be rival doc channel Spark.

One of the series that has gone to Discovery is Hot Roads – The World’s Most Dangerous Roads, which travels the world’s most dangerous roads, from China to Canada.

The second is Asia – Secret Lives, Hidden Places, which was shot in natural parks around Asia.

The package announced in the run up to Mip Doc in Cannes (2-3 April) also contains two one-off specials – Java in Jeopardy – Exploring the Volcano and Autentic/NDR/LIC China co-pro Little Train, which was originally headed for docu channel, Spark, a would-be rival pan-Asian/global service.

Autentic Distribution parent company, Autentic GmbH, was one of the partners in Spark, announced during Mipcom 2014 with Malaysia’s Astro and Singapore production house The Moving Visuals Co.

The fate of the channel, which was to have launched in early 2015 as a linear service with digital add ons, is not clear.

Published on 21 March 2016