Rare Television buys UK indie Screenchannel

UK production group Rare Television has acquired indie prodco Screenchannel Television.

Screenchannel was launched in 2009 by Peter Lowe, a former BBC executive producer and controller at Carlton Television, and Emma Barker, a former commissioning editor and controller at ITV.

Its key credits are fact-ent series The Sheriffs Are Coming, Oxford Street Revealed and Fake Britain, which was recently commissioned by the BBC for a sixth season.

Private equity-backed Rare launched last year with the aim of creating a group of small-to-medium sized UK factual producers.

It is run by former Ingenious Ventures managing director Antony Fraser, who said: “Screenchannel brings a wealth of complementary skills and experience to Rare, and we look forward to working with them as they continue to develop their business, both in the UK and internationally. We are confident that we will see Screenchannel’s name on many more credits over the coming months.”

Peter Lowe and Emma Barker will remain with Screenchannel following the Rare deal.

In a joint statement they said: “We are really pleased to form this new creative partnership that will help the company enhance the programmes we already produce and develop a whole new generation of Screenchannel projects for the future – with a team who like us who put programmes first.”

Screenchannel will sit alongside 360Production and Babygrand Productions in the Rare group.