Borgia is back on Canal+, and this series, part of the French premium channel’s label “Original Creation”, has generated an interest that goes well beyond its subscriber’s fascination for the sulfurous Renaissance family.
No less than a dozen books were published on the topic in 2011, when the channel aired the first season exclusively. This year again, the series, now in its third and last season and whose first two episodes are broadcast this September 15, sparked initiatives. An exhibition on the Borgias opens this week at Musée Maillol in Paris, bringing together armor, jewels and masterpieces that tell the family’s extraordinary saga.
A success in France, Borgia also proved extremely popular in many countries around the world. Designed from the outset to be distributed internationally, the series has been sold to date for broadcast in over 80 territories.
The shootings, carried out in the Czech Republic and Italy, took place in English. Tom Fontana, the creator and mastermind behind the series, knows how to meet such an international ambition: among others, he distinguished himself with the series Oz, initially aired on HBO before being broadcast worldwide. Borgia’s producers are Atlantic Productions, a subsidiary of Lagardère Entertainment, and EOS Entertainment, while the German company Beta Film, a co-producer, provides worldwide distribution for the series.
Fabrice de la Patellière and Pierre Saint-André, from Canal+’s Fiction Department, explain that “broadcasting Borgia in fall 2011 was a major milestone for the channel as it was one of our first major international coproductions in the field of series. This immersion in European history has become, thanks to the unique look of Tom Fontana, an ambitious and modern series about power.”
The final season will air exclusively on Canal +, but can also be viewed right away in its entirety on Canal + à la demande (Canal+ on demand) as of the evening of its launch on the premium channel. This new mode of series consumption, highly prized today, had already been successfully offered to Canal+ subscribers last April for another “Original Creation”, the Mafiosa season 5, a premiere in France.
