STV Productions and GroupM Entertainment join forces
STV Productions and GroupM Entertainment have joined forces to create a strategic development partnership that will see the two companies co-invest, co-develop and co-produce ideas across a broad range of genres.
“We are delighted to be announcing this significant development in the strong relationship that has already formed between STV Productions and GroupM Entertainment. This arrangement will bring together the best of both companies to co-develop projects and achieves increased scale and a new impetus to our development activities across a range of genres. We look forward to working closely with our colleagues at GME in this next phase of our successful partnership.” – Alan Clements, Director of Content for STV Productions
The innovative deal involves substantial development investment from both companies and has been shaped to capitalise on the strengths of each business. The focus will be on the creation of new entertainment, factual and drama projects which will be targeted at major broadcasters in the UK and internationally. The companies will work together internationally, as well as with third party distributors, to exploit ideas developed under this deal.
The partnership builds on the successful production and development relationship between the companies which has resulted in a number of successful co-productions including The Poison Tree for ITV, Perez Hilton: Superfan for ITV2, Prison – First and Last 24 hours for Sky1 and most recently ITV2’s Safeword. The first project to be developed as a pilot under this new deal is announced today and will be available to present to broadcasters later this year: The Dressing Room, a documentary series that gets inside the changing rooms of sports teams across the country to bring all of the drama, excitement and emotion they experience – but none of the sport.
“This partnership further cements a very successful relationship with STV built over several years. It shows what’s possible if you take an imaginative approach to content both creatively and commercially. This is about investing in the early stages of development and taking the long view on high value IP, especially on development that is expensive or time consuming. But ultimately it’s about giving broadcasters greater choice where they are telling us they want it. Strong effective collaboration and clear focus from conception to exploitation, targeted at what commissioners want both in the UK and globally, will allow us to create unparalleled opportunities for both our businesses.” – Tony Moulsdale, Director of Programming, GroupM Entertainment
The partnership is non-exclusive and will see both STV & GME continue to work with other channels, distributors and content creators. STV operate two ITV franchises across Scotland and are currently one of only two ITV companies to remain independent of ITVplc, who operate the ITV Network in England and Wales. UTV for Northern Ireland being the other independent on the network. STV also operate two Local TV services. The ‘city stations’ broadcast to Edinburgh and Glasgow.
