Television
October 14, 2010
Warner Bros. Television Group Completes Acquisition Of Shed Media, Major UK Independent Television Production And Distribution Company
(October 14, 2010 – Burbank, CA and London, England) – Warner Bros. Television Group today announced that it has completed its acquisition of a majority stake in Shed Media, one of the UK’s largest and most successful independent production and distribution companies, with operations in both the UK and the US. Shed Media will remain an independent production company, while its distribution operation, Outright Distribution, will be folded into the Warner Bros. International Television Production unit, also based in the UK.
Shed Media is a leading UK creator and distributor of drama, factual, documentary, reality and historical television content. It is comprised of Shed Productions, Ricochet, Twenty Twenty, Wall to Wall, Shed Scotland and Shed US, and is responsible for more than 2,000 hours of programming, including “Supernanny,” “Waterloo Road,” “Footballers’ Wives” and “Who Do You Think You Are?” The company’s productions have been honored with several awards, including BAFTA and Emmy Awards, as well as an Oscar in 2009 for Best Documentary Feature for the film “Man on Wire.”
Shed Media also owns and fully exploits the rights to its extensive program library worldwide, through its in-house distribution company, Outright Distribution. Outright will be incorporated into the operations of Warner Bros. International Television Production, where its employees will join WBITVP’s in continuing to sell the format rights for programming from Warner Bros. Television, Warner Horizon Television, Telepictures Productions and Shed Media to international broadcasters worldwide.
Last year, Warner Bros. International Television Distribution announced the formation of WBITVP. During the past 12 months, WBITVP has been steadily increasing the amount of formats it has been licensing, such as “The Bachelor,” and has been aligning with high-profile producers such as John de Mol.
Bruce Rosenblum, President, Warner Bros. Television Group said, “This acquisition marks an important part of our strategic growth initiative for the television group. We already have a leading position and scale in the United States, and this marks the start of the establishment of Warner Bros. as producer of quality entertainment of scale in other important countries.”
Jeffrey R. Schlesinger, President, Warner Bros. International Television said, "Today marks a significant first step in the strategy we announced a year ago. The acquisition of a majority stake in one of the top multi-genre production companies in the UK will establish a foundation for future expansion into other countries. Incorporating the shows, formats and talented executives of Outright into our international distribution operation will expand the depth and breadth of the programming that we are able to offer our broadcasting partners around the world."
Ronald Goes, Executive Vice President, Warner Bros. International Television Production commented, “Our objective is to align with the best possible talent in each major country. Shed has an impressive creative and commercial track record and a strong management team. Together, I am certain that we will enable Shed to do even more of what they do best – produce market-leading programming that become franchises and can be exported to create local versions around the world."
Josh Berger, President & Managing Director, Warner Bros. UK, Ireland and Spain said, “Joining this outstanding company with ours helps further our interests in the UK, adding TV to our already strong UK production presence across theatrical production and video game development."
Nick Southgate, CEO, Shed Media added, “This tremendously exciting deal represents a watershed moment for Shed. It opens up a myriad of opportunities for our business, not least of which is access to Warner Bros.’ unparalleled worldwide distribution network. Shed and Warner Bros. both believe in the creative process and quality of execution. With our UK production and international format licensing expertise, and Warner Bros.’ extraordinary global distribution capabilities, we are creating a powerful combination that we hope will be a great benefit to the UK television sector and to our international broadcast partners worldwide.”###