{"id":3043,"date":"2025-09-08T16:42:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T16:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/3043\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T16:42:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T16:42:06","slug":"espn-and-bell-media-acquire-rights-to-origin-from-fremantle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/3043\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN and Bell Media Acquire Rights to ‘Origin’ From Fremantle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tESPN<\/a> has acquired exclusive U.S. rights to Richard Brown and Tebogo Malope\u2019s docuseries \u201cOrigin: The Story of the Basketball Africa League\u201d ahead of its world premiere in Toronto. Bell Media acquired the Canadian rights to the film. Fremantle handles global sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe four-episode \u201cOrigin\u201d chronicles a dream turned reality: the story of when the American National Basketball Association (NBA) committed to launching the Basketball Africa League (BAL), a championship with 12 teams from across the continent representing nations such as Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe documentary features interviews with prominent figures and outspoken supporters of the BAL, such as former U.S. President Barack Obama, Grammy winner and former BAL player J. Cole, four-time NBA champion Stephen Curry and former president of the Toronto Raptors Masai Ujiri, as it chronicles the realization of a decades-long vision for elite basketball across Africa.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOrigin\u201d is produced by Richard Brown\u2019s Passenger and Fremantle. The series is executive produced, written, and co-directed by Richard Brown (\u201cTrue Detective,\u201d \u201cOutlaw King\u201d) with other executive producers including Masai Ujiri, Akin Omotoso (\u201cRise\u201d), Fisher Stevens<\/a> (\u201cBeckham\u201d) and co-director Tebogo Malope (\u201cRise: The Siya Kolisi Story\u201d). The four episodes trail the BAL\u2019s inaugural season and playoffs while exploring the league\u2019s potential to transform both large-scale sporting and socio-economic opportunities across the continent.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmadou Gallo Fall, president of the Basketball Africa League, said that the sales agreements with ESPN and Bell Media will allow fans across North America to get \u201ca behind-the-scenes look at the BAL\u2019s historic inaugural season and the impact that the league is having on lives, communities and economies across the continent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRichard Brown emphasized how the filmmaking team was granted \u201cremarkable access\u201d to \u201cchronicle not only the inaugural season of the Basketball Africa League itself but the personal journeys of the competing players and coaches, as well as the visionaries who are building something historic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTo have ESPN and Bell Media \u2014 two of the most respected and far-reaching platforms in North America \u2014 bring \u2018Origin\u2019 to audiences is truly exciting,\u201d added the director. \u201cTheir belief in this series ensures this series will have the visibility and impact we hoped for; these are stories of ambition, competition, resilience, and transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJustin Stockman, VP, content development and programming, Bell Media, highlighted the series\u2019s strong connections to \u201cwell-known basketball figures in Canada and Toronto.\u201d \u201cWe know this documentary will appeal to Crave and TSN audiences who are looking for compelling, engaging, and inspiring content.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOrigin\u201d will premiere Sept. 8 and will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers, producers and special guests, examining the League\u2019s role in fostering trans-Atlantic partnerships and developing African basketball talent. Speakers include Brown, Ujiri, Gallo, MVP of BAL\u2019s inaugural season Walter Hodge and two-time NBA all-star Joakim Noah.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN has acquired exclusive U.S. rights to Richard Brown and Tebogo Malope\u2019s docuseries \u201cOrigin: The Story of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,4129,4130,85,46,403,411],"class_list":["post-3043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-espn","tag-fisher-stevens","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-toronto-film-festival","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}