Tag Archives: Life Below Zero: Canada

Blue Ant Media celebrates 10-year anniversary with 10 new and returning original productions for its Canadian broadcast channels

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.

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Cottage Life TV goes off the grid, braving the cold in all-new Series, Life Below Zero: Canada

From a media release:

Based on the popular BBC Studios format and multi-Emmy® Award-winning reality series, Life Below Zero, the long-awaited Canadian adaptation, Life Below Zero: Canada (8×60’) follows a diverse group of individuals from different cultural backgrounds, including Canadians, First Nations and Swiss trappers, giving viewers an unfiltered glimpse into how they survive in the coldest and most remote regions of Northern Canada. Filmed across the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Northern Ontario, with a crew of six people, 120 days travelling and over 500 hundred hours of footage shot, the eight-part docu-series captures the compelling stories of five ‘off the grid’ Canadians who must navigate through deadly weather, with limited resources, to seek out food, water and shelter. Life Below Zero: Canada airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, starting March 17, exclusively on Cottage Life during the channel’s eight-week free preview event running from March 2 to May 3 across 10 million Canadian households.

From long, dark, frozen winters to sweltering, bug-infested summers, Life Below Zero: Canada captures the day-to-day trials of people living in unforgiving environments. The stars of the series include Becky Broderick, who left Sudbury, Ontario to start a family in the wilderness; Bentley Kakekayash, who was born in a remote North Caribou Lake First Nations community only knowing life in the bush; “Pike” Mike Harrison, a self-professed “lone-wolf”, who has spent the last two decades living in isolation in a cabin he built himself; and best friends Kim Pasche and Pierre-Yves Duc who moved from Switzerland 10 years ago to live off the land in the Yukon.

Life Below Zero: Canada is based on the original format, Life Below Zero, licensed and distributed by BBC Studios. The series is produced by Saloon Media, a Blue Ant Studios company. Paul Kilback and Tara Elwood are the Series Producers. Paul Kilback, Victor Kushmaniuk and Mark Stevenson serve as Directors. Michael Kot, Betty Orr and Paul Kilback serve as Executive Producers. Overseeing the series for Cottage Life TV is Sam Linton, Head of Original Content for Blue Ant Media.

Meet the Canadian Stars of Life Below Zero: Canada:

Becky Broderick 
Location: Mendenhall River, Yukon Territory Łutsël K’e, Northwest Territories
At 30 years-old, Becky left her suburban life in Sudbury, Ontario to move to the remote north and settle down roots. Becky lives with her husband, newborn daughter and her beloved team of sled dogs. They live off grid and Becky aims to ‘up’ their game to be completely self-reliant. Becky wants to raise her daughter to be “a self-sufficient badass.”

Bentley Kakekayash
Location: Weagamow Lake, Northern Ontario (a remote North Caribou Lake First Nations community)
At only 25 years-old, Bentley Kakekayash is an experienced outdoorsman who has been working and living in the bush since the day he was born. Living in a remote First Nations community, Bentley works the same trap line that his ancestors did before him.

“Pike” Mike Harrison
Location: Lindberg Landing, NWT (670km west of Yellowknife)
Mike has been living alone in the woods for over 20 years and it’s left him extremely industrious… and a little loopy.  Mike is a professional handyman, constantly upgrading his cabin and gear with items he sources from the wilderness. Mike is a regular “MacGyver” when it comes to builds and general wilderness survival.

Kim Pasche and Pierre-Yves Duc
Location: Silent Lake, Yukon
Best friends Kim and Pierre are Swiss born hunters, trappers and bushmen who have lived in the Yukon for 10 years. They have been working one of the remote trap-lines in the Yukon Territories for the last six years.Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Blue Ant Media greenlights Life Below Zero: Canada

From a media release:

Blue Ant Media, an international producer, distributor and channel operator, announced today that it has entered into an agreement with BBC Studios to be the first to license the series format rights for the international hit Life Below Zero. In the U.S., the series recently celebrated its 100th episode on the National Geographic Channel, being one the most-watched programs, where it takes up the largest portion of the channel’s programming lineup. BBC Studios production arm in Los Angeles first launched the series in 2013.

Blue Ant Media’s newly acquired Saloon Media is starting production this month on Life Below Zero: Canada (8 x 60 minutes). The new documentary series is being shot on location in Canada with a focus on Canadian people and stories and is set to air on the Cottage Life channel in 2020. A special 30-minute, sneak peek documentary episode will premiere on the channel this April.

Based on BBC’s successful format, Life Below Zero: Canada is an observational documentary series about people who live off the grid in remote regions of northern Canada. The series follows a diverse group of people from different backgrounds, including first nations, giving viewers an unfiltered glimpse into their rugged day-to-day activities that range from makeshift problem solving to traditional survival practices. From long, dark, frozen winters, to sweltering, bug-infested summers, these Canadians grapple with deadly weather and limited resources to find food, water, and shelter.

Blue Ant Media is a privately held, international content producer, distributor and channel operator. From our production houses around the world, we create content for multiple genres including factual, factual entertainment, short-form digital series and kids programming.

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