From a media release:

To mark Blue Ant Media’s 10-year anniversary this September, the international producer, distributor and channel operator announced today 10 new and returning originals to premiere on its portfolio of Canadian specialty networks. The new premium programming lineup includes outdoor lifestyle and survival shows, paranormal anthology series, compelling documentaries and relevant specials with several programs available for licensing globally by Blue Ant International. Overseen by Sam Linton, Head of Original Content, Blue Ant Media, the new commissioning slate will begin airing on the media company’s Canadian channels this fall and into 2022, with several series premiering during nationwide free preview events.

Cottage Life’s highest-rated original, Life Below Zero: Canada (Season 2; World Broadcast Premiere), has been renewed for a second season. Based on the Emmy® Award-winning format Life Below Zero, created and produced by BBC Studios’ Los Angeles production arm, the Canadian adaptation follows a diverse group of individuals surviving in the coldest and most remote regions of Canada. The second installment is co-produced by Blue Ant Media, Quebecor Content and APTN. Also returning to Cottage Life, the Blue Ant Media and APTN co-production Merchants of the Wild (Season 4; Broadcast Premiere) has been renewed for a fourth season. The series follows six Indigenous Adventurers who spend 25 days living off the land in the vast territory known to the L’nu (Mi’kmaq) people as Kespukwitk (lands end), and known to non-Indigenous people as the Southern Nova Scotia. They must use the teachings from the L’nu Elders and Knowledge Holders, who they meet along the way, to help them on their journey and reconnect to who they are as Indigenous Peoples. Finally, Blue Ant Media has greenlit a third installment of Ice Vikings (Season 3; World Broadcast Premiere), which follows fearless descendants of Icelandic Vikings as they battle the elements to keep ice fishing alive on Manitoba’s Lake Winnipeg, reeling in big fish and fat paycheques along the way. Blue Ant Media has also acquired Seasons 1 and 2 of the Ice Vikings franchise to air on Cottage Life. Both Life Below Zero: Canada, Season 2 and Ice Vikings, Season 3 are scheduled to premiere on Cottage Life during the channel’s nationwide free preview event in spring 2022.

On T+E, Canada’s home to paranormal programming, the new original anthology series Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life (Season 1; Canadian Broadcast Premiere) examines horrifying real-life stories of hauntings experienced by everyday people. Executive produced by the award-winning film director, producer, writer and actor Eli Roth (Inglourious Basterds, Hostel, The Last Exorcism) and Cream Productions, the Blue Ant Media and discovery+ co-production features chilling eyewitness accounts and dramatic reconstructions reminiscent of Roth’s vivid cinematic masterpieces. Also new on T+E, The Lost Colony of Roanoke (Season 1; Canadian Broadcast Premiere), follows a team of archaeologists as they dig for evidence that could help solve one of America’s oldest and most controversial mysteries: what happened to the English colony on Roanoke Island? Featuring exclusive interviews, never-before-seen archaeological evidence and cutting-edge scientific analysis, the series offers compelling theories on the fate of the first European colony in the Americas, who settled on Roanoke Island in 1587 and suddenly vanished without a trace. The Lost Colony of Roanoke will premiere in spring 2022 during T+E’s nationwide free preview event.

The new documentary series Griff’s Great Canadian Adventure (Canadian Broadcast Premiere) marks the first original commission for BBC First in Canada since Blue Ant Media launched the channel in partnership with BBC Studios in March 2021. The six-part series, co-produced by Nikki Ray Media Agency and EQ Media Group, in association with Blue Ant Media, Channel 4, Abacus Media Rights, Quiver Entertainment, Australian Broadcasting Corporation and The History Channel (NZ), follows Welsh comedian and travel enthusiast Griff Rhys Jones on an epic journey across the commonwealth country as he explores Canadian cultures and traditions.

Blue Ant Media has greenlit two new Canadian documentary specials, The Digital Divide (working title) (Season 1; World Broadcast Premiere) and Strange Creatures (working title) (Season 1; World Broadcast Premiere), for its premium factual channel, BBC Earth. This is the first time Blue Ant Media has commissioned originals for BBC Earth in Canada since the channel launched in partnership with BBC Studios in 2017. The Digital Divide (working title) explores the growing chasm between the have and have-nots of digital, mobile and satellite technology. The timely documentary special looks at how COVID-19 exposed the underlying reality that not everyone can afford essential digital devices and examines the significant implications it has on society when there is not an equal playing ground to access technology. The special will have a digital premiere on the MobileSyrup website, a Blue Ant Media-owned company and Canada’s leading technology news website, before airing on BBC Earth. Strange Creatures (working title, a nature and wildlife documentary, is a one-hour spinoff special to Blue Ant Media’s hit YouTube series, Animalogic. Hosted by Animalogic’s scientific illustrator, Danielle Dufault, the special explores Canada’s unusual and fascinating creatures. Both documentary specials are scheduled to premiere in spring 2022 on BBC Earth during the channel’s nationwide free preview event.

On Smithsonian Channel in Canada, the Blue Ant Media and Channel 5 co-production, World’s Most Scenic River Journeys (Season 2; Canadian Premiere) has been renewed for a second season. Narrated by Golden Globe®, Tony and BAFTA award-winning actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), the documentary series takes audiences on a visually stunning trip alongside some of the most beautiful and famous rivers around the world. Also new is History by the Numbers (Canadian Broadcast Premiere), an energetic, fast-paced 20-part series about the extraordinary and often overlooked numbers that help us decode world history. Each episode delves into the numbers to give audiences unimaginable numerical facts and top stats behind a different subject – from the massive growth of the global fast-food empire to the wealth and bloodshed of the world’s top crime bosses, the herculean numbers behind Mount Everest, the lives of the richest people on earth, and so much more. The series offers a fresh perspective on how the world adds up today. History by the Numbers is scheduled to premiere in winter 2022 on Smithsonian Channel in Canada during the channel’s nationwide free preview event.

Additional original commissions will be announced by Blue Ant Media in the coming months.