’60 Days In’ Producer Lucky 8 Hires Former Beyond & Hat Trick Exec Sarah Bickley Ahead Of MIPCOM

EXCLUSIVE: 60 Days In indie Lucky 8 has hired former Beyond Rights and Hat Trick International sales exec Sarah Bickley has Head of Distribution ahead of MIPCOM next week.

The U.S. independent production company, which is behind unscripted hits including Netflix’s Unlocked: A Jail Experiment and A&E’s 60 Days In, will be in Cannes next week at MIPCOM with industry veteran Sarah Bickley.

She will be first Head of Distribution at Lucky 8, with the hire coinciding with an expansion into the global market.

Bickley will join Lucky 8 Co-Presidents Greg Henry and Kim Woodard at MIPCOM, where Lucky 8 will have a slate of more than ten projects, most of which have premiered or are set to launch on major cable nets. Blue Ant International will handle international distribution for Lucky 8’s latest feature documentary, Grizzly 399: Queen of the Tetons, which is a 60-minute version of the doc premiered on PBS in May.

Bickley has more than 20 years of experience in TV distribution and was most recently Head of Sales at Beyond Rights, which was sold to Banijay in early 2023. While at Beyond, she managed co-productions and helped secure commissions and pre-sales for projects such as Charles: Our New King, which went to Channel 4 in the UK, M6 in France, Paramount in the U.S. and SBS in Australia.

She joined Beyond after working in distribution at UK indie group Tin Roof Media, and further back was Senior Sales Executive at Hat Trick International.

In addition to Netflix series Unlocked: A Jail Experiment and A&E’s 60 Days In, Lucky 8’s is behind shows such as Nat Geo’s long-running To Catch a Smuggler and new spinoff To Catch a Smuggler: Tropical Takedown. It also produces History docudramas The Food That Built America and The Mega-Brands That Built America, Disney+ and Nat Geo’s Emmy-nominated Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper and A&E’s Booked: First Day In. Further projects are in development and production for Netflix, A&E, History, PBS and other streamers and networks. 

“The business is evolving in a way that’s opened up a lot of new opportunities for our company on the global stage,” said Henry and Woodard in a statement. “In addition to our commissions in the U.S., we’re placing increasing emphasis on international sales and co-productions, and it’s a tremendous lift to have an executive with Sarah’s expertise and experience leading that charge.”

An increasing number of U.S. unscripted producers have been making eyes at the international market, with the local market still down on pre-pandemic levels of production.