The UK Television Industry Independent Production Sector

Independent Production Companies

Left Bank Pictures

Andy Harries, the former ITV Productions / Granada Controller of Drama, Comedy and Film, set up LEFT BANK PICTURES in July 2007. BBC Worldwide took a 25% equity stake in the new company, with Helen Jackson, BBC Worldwide’s Director of Independents, taking a seat on the Left Bank Pictures board. The investment also give BBC Worldwide an exclusive first-look [distribution] deal on all of Left Bank Pictures’ television productions. Harries as majority stake holder and Managing Director of Left Bank Pictures, is joined by Jenny Borgars, most recently Head of the Development fund at the UK Film Council as Head Of Film. Francis Hopkinson, formerly Senior Commissioning Editor for Channel 4’s Drama Department; and Marigo Kehoe, formerly Head of Production for Drama, Comedy, Factual Drama and Film at Granada/ITV Productions. A tight ship and one with the contacts to go far.

ALL3Media

ALL3MEDIA was founded in August 2003, when its management team acquired the former Chrysalis TV Group for £45 million with funding provided by European private equity firm Bridgepoint. The company, which was subsequently acquired by the private equity house Permira for £320m in 2006, is led by ex-Granada Television stalwarts Steve Morrison, David Liddiment, and Jules Burns and John Pfeil, formerely Group Financial Controller at Reed Elsevier. Companies within the All3 Media portfolio include; ARG, Bentley Productions, Cactus TV, Company Pictures, Lion Television, Lime Pictures, Maverick Television, North One Television, Objective Productions, Studio Lambert in the UK, IdtV in the Netherlands, MME MOVIEMENT in Germany, South Pacific Pictures in New Zealand and Lion Television in the USA. It also incorporates a distribution arm ALL3MEDIA International. According to a report, the US studio NBC Universal has approached the company about a possible takeover. The takeover would represent the first major deal for Angela Bromstad who now oversees NBCU's London arm.

Shed Productions

London Stock Exchange listed Shed is an independent UK television production company specialising in drama programming and content. The company was established in 1998 by Eileen Gallagher, Brian Park, Ann McManus and Maureen Chadwick, all of whom had previously worked at Granada Television. The company's first production, Bad Girls, was commissioned by ITV in the summer of 1998. Following on from this, the company won a major new commission in 2000 to produce Footballers' Wives for ITV. In 2005 Shed secured its first BBC commission; Waterloo Road. More recently, the company announced that it had secured a new peak-time drama commission from the BBC, Hope Springs. Companies within the Shed Media Portfolio include; Ricochet, Twenty Twenty, Wall to Wall, Outright Distribution.

Shine

Shine, founded by Elisabeth Murdoch in early 2001, supplies factual, entertainment and drama content to BBC, ITV, C4, five and Sky. Some of the company's key brands include; Sugar Rush, Masterchef, Sex… With Mum & Dad, The Clothes Show, Project Catwalk and The Story of Light Entertainment. In December 2006 Shine acquired the independent production companies Kudos Film and Television, Princess Productions and Firefly Film and Television. It is believed that the company paid £35m for Kudos, the producer of Spooks and Life on Mars; £20m for Princess, producer of The Friday Night Project and Something for the Weekend; and £10m for Firefly, which has produced BodyShock and Anatomy for Beginners. The combined group will have an estimated turnover of over 100m.

RTL

RTL Group was created in spring 2000 following the merger of Luxembourg based CLT-UFA and the then British content production company Pearson TV, which was owned by UK media group Pearson plc. In July 2001, Bertelsmann became a majority shareholder in the RTL Group following a stock swap with the Belgian-Canadian holding company Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL). then in December 2001, Bertelsmann entered into an agreement with Pearson plc to acquire its 22 per cent stake in RTL Group. Bertelsmann’s interest in RTL Group is now 90.3 per cent. The remaining 9.7 per cent of RTL Group is publicly traded on the Brussels and Luxembourg stock exchanges. Amongst many businesses RTL owns Channel 5 in the UK and the production companies FremantleMedia (London), FremantleMedia North America (Los Angeles), and Talkback Thames (London).

IMG

Operating in 30 countries IMG is a diversified sports, entertainment and media enterprise. IMG's media portfolio includes TWI, Darlow Smithson Productions, CSI Sports, Tiger Aspect Productions, Tigress Productions Limited and Nunet AG. The company produces and distributes over 11,000 hours of content to 220 countries. IMG also represents and negotiates television rights for dozens of organizations around the world and more than 100 major sporting events. Facts

Endemol

Endemol is a provider of television and other audiovisual entertainment, with a presence in 25 countries on five continents. Some of the company's leading brands include; Big Brother; Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Deal or No Deal. On 3 July 2007, Endemol's major shareholder Telefonica sold its 75% stake in Endemol to Edam Acquisition. Pursuant to this transaction, an offer was made for the remaining shares in the company, resulting in Edam Acquisition owning 99.5% of all Endemol shares by mid August 2007 followed by a delisting of the company in September 2007. Edam Acquisition is jointly and equally owned by Cyrte Investments, Mediacinco (a joint venture of Mediaset and Telecinco) and GS Sachs Capital Partners. It is believed that Edam bought Endamol for an equit value of 3.1bn Euros. According to the Financial Times, the Edam Acquisitions consortium was financed by a debt package made up of about €2bn of senior debt, €250m of lower-ranking second-lien debt and €345m of mezzanine debt. The financing was provided by ABN Amro, Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. The Financial Times recently reported that the six banks faces losses of upto 400m Euros as they seek to sell on the debt. ENDEMOL UK incorporates a number of production brands including BRIGHTER PICTURES, CHEETAH TELEVISION, INITIAL and ZEPPOTRON. These four companies specialise in a broad range of genres including factual entertainment, reality series, specialist factual, gameshows, arts, live events, music entertainment, documentaries, youth shows and comedy.

RDF

The RDF Media Group creates, acquires and distributes television content, mainly in the factual, entertainment, drama and children's programming genres. The company was founded in 1993 and floated on London's AIM market in May 2005 at a price of 144p. Subssequent to its flotation, the company acquired IWC Media, Presentable, Radar and Touchpaper Television. RDF's key programmed include Wife Swap for Channel 4 and the ABC network; Location, Location, Location and Relocation, Relocation for Channel 4; Holiday Showdown and Ladette to Lady for ITV1; Late Night Poker for Channel 4; Rock School and Rap School for Channel 4 and VH1; Faking It and Scrapheap Challenge for Channel 4 and TLC; Shipwrecked for Channel Four; Christian O’Connell’s Sunday Service and Mission Implausible for Sky One; Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife for BBC3. In April 2008 shares in RDF rose 33% to 1271/2p after it was announced that the company had received an indicative offer from a consortium that included the company's executive directors. The indicative offer is backed by RDF's largest shareholer, the Talpa Beheer vehicle, which is controlled by John De Mol, the founder of Endemol.