Peter Chernin’s North Road buys Turkish prodco Karga Seven Pictures in first major int’l acquisition

Midnight At The Pera Palace

Peter Chernin’s The North Road Company has bought Turkish production firm Karga Seven Pictures, in its first major international acquisition.

The firm, based in Istanbul and Los Angeles is behind titles including period docudrama Rise Of Empires: Ottoman and time travel show Midnight At The Pera Palace, both for Netflix. Karga Seven is also behind Hekimoglu, the Turkish remake of US medical drama House.

Karga Seven’s founders, producers Sarah Wetherbee, Emre Sahin, and Kelly McPherson, will remain in leadership roles at the company, with Wetherbee and Sahin serving as global co-CEOs, while McPherson is head of English language content. The company has also hired Ömer Müjdat Özgüner as its CEO for Turkey.

Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal was led by North Road president Jan Frouman, to whom Wetherbee and Sahin will both report.

Peter Chernin

International strategy

The acquisition gives The North Road Company access to the Turkish market, while in turn providing support and resources to Karga Seven to help grow the company.

Karga Seven had previously been majority owned by Red Arrow Studios, with its US assets acquired by North Road in a $200m deal last year. This latest acquisition is separate to it.

This latest expansion for The North Road Company comes just a few weeks after it acquired a minority stake in Omaha Productions, the US label set up by NFL quarterback Peyton Manning.

“Given its sheer volume of globally relevant and high-quality content, Turkey is a perfect fit with North Road’s broader international strategy, and the addition Karga 7 to our studio is a significant accomplishment,” said Chernin.

The North Road Company, which is backed by US private equity firms Providence Equity Partners and Apollo, also houses Love Is Blind and Married At First Sight prodco Kinetic Content, as well as 44 Blue Productions, which was behind A&E’s Wahlburgers and Fox’s First Responders Live.

It is also home to Half Yard Productions, which produces Say Yes To The Dress for TLC, Dorsey Pictures and Left/Right, whose output includes FX and Hulu doc, Framing Britney Spears.