International sales handled by Abacus Media Rights
For immediate release:
London/Hampshire, Tuesday 8th February 2022 – Woodcut Media has been commissioned by Sky UK to produce the powerfully emotive true crime series Murdered at First Sight for Sky Crime. The series is scheduled to TX on the channel in March.Murdered at First Sight (10 x 1hr) tells the first-hand stories of some of the most complex and hard-to-solve murder cases: stranger murders. With these cases, there are no disgruntled partners, no jealous relatives, no family squabble… they leave behind devastated families and terrified communities. And these seemingly motiveless murders, notoriously difficult to crack are on the rise. In fact, last year according to ONS, in the UK, 137 men and 23 women were killed by people they didn’t know and had never met, a 43% rise on previous years.
Murdered at First Sight was commissioned by Emily-Jayne Wilde, Programming Lead, Sky Crime and Sky Witness. Executive producers are Matthew Gordon and Koulla Anastasi, Woodcut Media.
Matthew Gordon said: “As producers, we always try to explore the stories relating to murder with sensitivity. The fact that these perpetrators commit heinous acts on complete strangers is hard to comprehend. Sky Crime is a superb platform for Murdered at First Sight which will shed some light on some extraordinary cases.”
The series is being distributed internationally (outside UK) by Abacus Media Rights.
Jonathan Ford, Managing Director at Abacus Media Rights comments: “There is a continued global curiosity in the many types of true crime and this new series, from the excellent production team at Woodcut, looks at the genre from a new angle which we are sure will be of interest to our international clients.”
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About Sky:
Sky is Europe’s leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of Comcast Corporation, a global media and technology company that connects people to moments that matter. Across six countries, Sky connects 23 million customers to the best entertainment, sports, news, arts and to our own award-winning original content. Following the launch of Sky Glass, we now offer customers our strongest ever line-up of products and services. As well as the new streaming TV with Sky inside and everything integrated, customers can enjoy the award-winning Sky Q with all your favourite channels and apps in one place, and with Sky Go you can now access an even better experience on your devices. Sky TV has new channels, new shows and new deals with Peacock, Paramount+ and more. Sky Mobile was voted Best Pay Monthly and Best Value Pay Monthly network by Uswitch, and with Sky Broadband we’re offering our fastest speeds yet. Building on the success of Sky Originals like Chernobyl, Gangs of London and Brassic, we are doubling our investment in original content by 2024 through Sky Studios. Our new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, is expected to create over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK over the first five years alone. Sky News provides impartial and trustworthy journalism for free, Sky Arts is the UK’s only dedicated free-to-air arts channel making the arts accessible for everyone and Sky Sports, our leading sports broadcasting service, brings customers some of the biggest and best global sporting events from the Premier League to Formula 1 and everything in-between. Sky Cinema is the home of Sky Original films with brand new films launching every month alongside an unrivalled range of the latest cinema releases and on demand library. We believe that we can be a force for good in the communities in which we operate. We’re committed to being Europe’s first net zero carbon entertainment company by 2030 and we’re proud to be a Principal Partner and Media Partner of COP26 – the UN Climate Change Conference. We take pride in our approach to diversity and inclusion: we’ve been recognised by The Times and Stonewall for our commitment to diversity, and we’ve set ambitious 2025 targets to continue to increase diversity and representation. We’re also committed to investing £30million across our markets over the next three years to improve our approach to diversity and inclusion, and to tackle racial injustice.
About Woodcut Media:
With offices in London, Hampshire and Bristol, Woodcut Media (part of the Anthology Group of businesses), is one of the leading indies in the UK, producing a broad range of factual programming. Woodcut specialises in TRUE CRIME (The Killer Within, Surviving a Serial Killer, Murder at My Door with Kym Marsh, The Beverley Allitt Tapes, World’s Most Evil Killers…), SPECIALIST FACTUAL series (Tony Robinsons: Forgotten War Stories, Tony Robinson’s VE Day: Minute by Minute, The Secret History of World War II, the hit franchise Combat Ships, Combat Trains, Combat Machines..), PREMIUM DOCS/TALENT LED (Fiennes: Return to the Nile with Joseph and Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Cut from a Different Cloth and Mandela, My Dad and Me featuring Idris Elba, The Ivy…), and FACTUAL ENTERTAINMENT shows (Paranormal Captured, How Hacks Work, Around the World in 80 Tricks..). Woodcut works with multiple broadcasters worldwide such as Channel 5, Channel 4, Sky, National Geographic, Smithsonian Channel, Discovery, CI, HISTOIRE TV, to name a few. In 2020, Woodcut also launched distribution company Woodcut International, as well as a new Bristol-based production operation Woodcut West which specialises in natural history and high-end specialist factual. www.woodcutmedia.com
About Abacus Media Rights:
Abacus Media Rights (AMR) acquires and distributes a diverse slate of premium, multi-genre programming in the international market. At the same time, the company also works with producers to facilitate pre-sales and development finance as well as broadcaster commissions. Embracing a fully transparent reporting ethos throughout, AMR focuses on building strong client relationships and generating positive solutions at every stage of the process, from initial financing to worldwide broadcast in order to successfully deliver scripted and non-scripted entertainment that counts to a global audience. Abacus Media Rights is an Amcomri Entertainment company.www.abacusmediarights.com Twitter: @abacus_rights
