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ABC/Working Dog Productions
The US-based streaming service has bought the US, UK and ANZ rights to the highly acclaimed “Utopia,” the Aussie political comedy made by Working Dog Productions.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, season one of “Utopia” will be made available on the US and UK versions of the Netflix service later this year. A separate deal between Netflix and Working Dog will see “Utopia” appear on the Australian and New Zealand Netflix services, also by the end of 2015.
Created by Rob Sitch, Tom Gleisner and Santo Cilauro the show centres around the Nation Building Authority, a fictitious government agency tasked with overseeing major infrastructure works in Australia. It stars Sitch and features other Australia comedians such as Luke McGregor, Kitty Flanagan and Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann. First season aired on ABC1 in August last year and ran for eight episodes. The show won the TV Week Logie Award for Comedy in 2015.
Due to both the US and the UK already having shows called “Utopia” airing, it will be rebranded as “Dreamland” in those regions.
Working Dog has become a staple of Australian TV since the early 90s, producing shows like “Frontline,” “Funky Squad,” ‘The Panel” and “The Hollowmen.” The production house has also had success with feature films including “The Dish” and “The Castle.”
In the US Netflix has an estimated 41.4 million subscribers, with the UK surpassing 4 million back in 2014.
Season two of Utopia will air on the ABC in August this year.
Netflix did not respond to a request for comment.
