Irish production company beActive has sold 60 episodes of its TV cooking show ‘Mercados da Minha Terra’ to FOX’s 24 Hour Kitchen channel.
The show, translated as ‘Journey to the Market’, is a brand new series which sees Portuguese chef Sebastião Castilho share his cooking skills and tips with the general public.
24 Hour Kitchen is a brand new channel from the FOX network which has recently launched in Portugal with the aim of inspiring viewers to eat healthier.
60 half-hour episodes of ‘Mercados da Minha Terra’ will air on the channel from this month onwards.
BeActive’s Triona Campbell and Nuno Bernardo developed and produced the series, which was shot on location in Portugal through beActive’s sister company beActive Entertainment, which is based in Lisbon.
Speaking from the beActive Dublin office series producer Nuno Bernardo said the cooking series had been on the cards for some time: “This series is something we had been keen to do for a while. In casting chef Sebastião Castilho we know we found the right person to bring this to the screen and we are delighted to have been able to work with the FOX team on the series.”
‘Mercados da Minha Terra’ is the latest factual programming format beActive has developed having previously brought ‘Yes We Can’ and ‘The Club’ to Irish screens with the support of the BAI and Setanta Sports.
The Dublin-based company are fast becoming multiplatform experts, having initially developed ‘350 South’ and ‘The Road to Revolution’ for the web, with both series transferring to television.
Earlier this month it was announced the company had partnered with social media network Pinterest to develop the social media site’s first ever scripted series with ‘Beat Girl’. ‘Beat Girl’ has also been developed into a TV series, a feature film and online webisodes.
BeActive has managed to sell a number of formats internationally, something many Irish production companies struggle to do. BeActive’s CEO Triona Campbell said the new cookery show is an example of how Irish production companies can “think globally in terms of the IP they are creating.”
Campbell also said the latest project from the company was originally planned for an Irish audience: "This [‘Mercados da Minha Terra’] was something we developed with our team in house, and, at the time for the Irish market but when we were approached by FOX late last year who were looking for companies who could produce quality TV in volume we knew this was the perfect show to help launch their new channel so we retooled it for the Portuguese market and started a talent search.”
