Prosieben acquires Coelen’s Kinetic

Red Arrow Entertainment, the production company owned by German commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1, has acquired a stake in US production company Kinetic Content, its first major move into the United States.

The German outfit has purchased a 51% stake in the company, which was set up by former RDF USA chief executive Chris Coelen in March 2010. It will add Kinetic Content to the content pipeline of Red Arrow-owned international distributor SevenOne International.

Kinetic has had a busy few months. Since its inception Coelen, who was also previously an agent at United Talent Agency where he represented Ryan Seacrest and Jessica Simpson, has hired a number of development staff and inked a raft of internaitonal deals.

The company has hired former BBC Worldwide producer Matilda Zoltowski  and The Price of Beauty producer Jennifer Danska as joint SVPs, development and current programming. It has inked deals with Channel 4-owned rights division 4Rights to co-develop US cable dramas, a formats swap deal with Scottish broadcaster STV and a first look deal with Dutch producer Absolutely Independent.

Red Arrow Entertainment operates a number of production companies in Germany as well as Sultan Sushi in Belgium and the Netherlands and has joint venture agreements with Deal or No Deal creator Dick de Rijk and The Singing Bee producer Phil Gurin.