ZDF buys into German factual prodco

ZDF Enterprises, the commercial arm of the German public broadcaster, has acquired 49% of factual production company Hamburg DocLights. The producer specialises in nature films, docs and factual entertainment shows and ZDF Enterprises has bought a 49% stake. The current joint CEOs, Jörn Röver, Michaela Hummel and Andreas Knoblauch, will continue in their current positions.

“The collaboration with ZDF Enterprises is a further, important step towards establishing Studio Hamburg DocLights as one of Germany’s leading documentary film producers,” explains Michael Lehmann, chairman of the management of Studio Hamburg Produktion Gruppe. “In the future, we will be able to offer broadcasters event programs and series in all non-fiction domains,  many produced with foreign co-financing, which makes us more competitive.”

“With our holding in Studio Hamburg DocLights, we are rounding off our equity portfolio with additional nationally and internationally attractive genres, such as the animal film,” adds Alexander Coridass, president and CEO of ZDF Enterprises.

Cologne-based Studio Hamburg DocLights acquired shares in another German producer, Gruppe 5 Filmproduktion, last May. Gruppe 5 and Studio Hamburg DocLights are currently developing a documentary on the natural history of Germany, which is scheduled to be shown in theaters in 2013 and later in serial form on TV.