CW Digital Picks Up 'Backpackers' Web Series

WHISTLER, B.C. – The CW network has acquired the web comedy series Backpackers from Canada’s Smokebomb Entertainment for its digital studio.

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The sale to CW Digital follows Canadian broadcaster CTV acquiring the digital-only series about two friends, Ryan and Brandon, on a wild goose chase across Europe in search of Ryan’s fiancée for its own suite of digital platforms.

Backpackers, produced by Smokebomb, a division of Canadian TV producer Shaftesbury, will be shot in Europe in spring 2013 as 8 six-minute episodes.

“The sale to CW Digital guarantees an exciting North American launch for Backpackers, representing a new opportunity for broadcast and digital media to come together to create content,” Maggie Murphy, co-head of Shaftesbury U.S., based in Los Angeles, said Wednesday in a statement.

Shaftesbury is best known for its TV dramas The Listener on CTV and Fox International Channels, and Murdoch Mysteries for Citytv, UKTV and ITV Studios Global Entertainment.

The CW also airs another CTV drama, The L.A. Complex, from indie producer Epitome Pictures.