BBC Worldwide sells Top Gear format to Sky Italia
July 27, 2015
Top Gear UK may be out of production but is continuing to sell around the world, as BBC Worldwide announces that Italy is the latest country to license the format.
Produced by Toro Media (a Sony Picture Television Company) for SKY Italia, Top Gear Italia will air in 2016 on Sky Uno, the pay-TV platform’s entertainment channel, owned by Sky.
Tobi de Graaff, Executive Vice President of Western Europe at BBC Worldwide, welcomed the deal, saying, “We know that Top Gear already has a strong and established presence in Italy with the original UK series and the magazine proving hugely popular. Adding a local version to the mix in a country steeped in motoring history will be fantastic for Italian audiences.”
Italy is the second biggest market in Western Europe to launch a local version of Top Gear following the hugely successful Top Gear France which gave French broadcaster RMC their biggest ever audience when the series debuted earlier this year.