Lifestyle programmer Scripps Network U.K. and EMEA has expanded its carriage deal with cable group Liberty Global. The new agreement, announced Monday, extends the current deal whereby Liberty’s cable networks in Europe continue to carry Scripps’ Travel Channel, Food Network and Fine Living channels.
The deal also gives Liberty the right to roll out the Food Network and Fine Living brands into new territories where John Malone’s cable group operates.
Scripps has agreed to let Liberty deliver its lifestyle content across multiple platforms including cable, catch-up, subscription VOD and mobile.
Citing the “rapid growth we have experienced across the U.K. and EMEA,” Scripps recently made the biggest European commission in its history, ordering 40 30-minute episodes of new Brit-based kitchen series The Big Eat for its Food Network channel.
Liberty has cable TV operations throughout the U.K. and continental Europe, including Benelux, Germany-speaking territories, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The group also operates satellite TV services in five Central and Eastern European countries.
Liberty Global recently buffed up its own production operations in Europe, buying, together with Discovery Networks, the U.K. production group All3Media, for $930 million.
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