Televisa, Bellum Ent. In Program Collaboration

Televisa USA Development, a subsidiary of the Mexican media company Grupo Televisa, today announced it has established a programming collaboration with Bellum Entertainment, a producer-distributor of domestic and international programming.

The first venture to be co-produced is the crime docuseries Deep Undercover, with Joe Pistone (aka Donnie Brasco) as executive producer and host.

They will produce and distribute 52 x 30-minute episodes of Deep Undercover, targeting the U.S. cable, syndication and international markets starting at NATPE. The series chronicles the stories of former undercover agents, including Pistone. Their stories will be retold in a documentary style format by the agents, experts and others, interspersed with clips of historical footage, photos, audio recordings and recreations to set the tone.

“Bellum provides us with an outstanding partner in the U.S. and we are excited to be in business with their phenomenal team,” said Chris Philip, head of production and distribution for Televisa USA. “With Deep Undercover, we will focus on an untold segment of this genre by presenting highly compelling stories from the perspective of undercover agents, chronicling how they confronted the underworld and successfully cracked the case.”

Mary Carole McDonnell, founder and president of Bellum Entertainment, added: “There is an insatiable appetite for crime programming, both domestically and internationally. With Joe Pistone and the most gripping and dramatic cases in history, Deep Undercover will certainly be the first of many great programs we will be co-producing with Televisa USA.”

Deep Undercover joins Bellum’s recent enterprise in true crime docudrama, Corrupt Crimes, a syndicated investigative daytime series launched in fall 2015 with the Sinclair Broadcasting as the launch group.