November 20th, 2018 – Netflix has acquired the worldwide rights to season one of the New Metric Media and Sphère Média Plus drama Bad Blood, including a second window in Canada.
Outside of Canada the hour-long mafia drama will be branded as a Netflix original series, launching on Dec. 7.
The deal was inked by Netflix and the project’s global distributor Sky Vision.
Season one (6 x 60 minutes), inspired by Montreal crime boss Vito Rizzuto and based on crime thriller Business or Blood: Mafia Boss Vito Rizzuto’s Last War, was commissioned by Rogers Media and launched on City in August 2017. It was adapted for TV by Simon Barry and showrunner Michael Konyves.
New Metric president Mark Montefiore told Playback Daily that the deal, the prodco’s first with Netflix, is “critical” for the evolution of the company. In the past year, New Metric has appointed Caroline Habib as VP of development and Beth Iley as director of development as it builds up its scripted pipeline.
“Having this relationship with Netflix and this kind of credibility and recognition behind our projects only goes to further support our future endeavours. This is the logical next step for us as we build our slate and our projects become more ambitious and international in scope,” said Montefiore.
The Netflix deal comes five months after New Metric inked its first U.S. streaming deal with Hulu, which acquired two seasons of New Metric’s half-hour comedy Letterkenny (CraveTV).
In March, Rogers renewed Bad Blood for an expanded, eight-part second season, which premiered last month. The season-two finale airs on Nov. 29. Montefiore said New Metric is currently in early stage discussions about a third season.
Bad Blood is produced by New Metric and Sphère, in association with DHX Media and Skyvision.