TORONTO — Discovery Channel Canada said Monday that it has signed a multiyear first-look deal for high-definition programming with Japanese broadcaster NHK.
Toronto-based Discovery said that the program license agreement with Media International Corp., NHK’s distribution arm, will grant it exclusive first-look access to the Japanese broadcaster’s library of HD programming.
As part of the agreement, Discovery Channel will acquire at least 20 hours of HD programming from the NHK catalog in the first year, and 25 hours in the second and third year.
The first titles acquired under the licensing agreement include “Monster of the Sea” and “The Mysterious Black Rabbits.”
The HD licensing deal, which follows a 2006 co-production and content-sharing agreement between Discovery and NHK, was unveiled in New York at the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers.
