Passion Distribution is taking an entertainment series, … Make You Laugh Out Loud, to MIPTV. An episode titled Cats Make You Laugh Out Loud (pictured) from the 7x60mins user-generated content series from Mentorn Media scored more than two million viewers for UK network Channel 5 in January. Other shows on UK-based Passion’s line-up include its […]
Rumblings that the ob doc trend is stifling creativity on both sides of the Atlantic have divided the factual programming industry. Is the genre coming to the end of its cycle, or is it simply evolving, asks Jesse Whittock The commissions of History’s Pawn Stars and American Pickers in 2009 and 2010 respectively ushered in […]
The Tinopolis Group has paid an undisclosed multi-million dollar sum for Magical Elves, the US-based producer behind Top Chef and Braxton Family Values. No exact figure was put on the deal, which is the latest example of international production companies buying into the US’s bank of unscripted prodcos. Magical Elves now sits in a stable […]
Wales-based super indie Tinopolis has partnered with The Simple Life showrunner Kevin Lee to launch Tollbooth Group, a Burbank-based production company. Tinopolis will take an owernship stake in Tollbooth and distribute its output internationally through sales wing Passion Distribution. Based in LA, Tollbooth becomes the fourth US prodco in the Tinopolis Group portfolio. The others […]
Passion Distribution has cut international deals for several shows from UK producer Firecracker Films. Firecracker and Passion are both owned by Tinopolis, although some of the producer’s content, including My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, is distributed by Zodiak Rights under the terms of a deal that predates Tinopolis’ acquisition of Firecracker. However, going forward Passion […]
Warner Bros.-owned Shed Media has hired two new programming executives as it seeks to ramp up its reality programming activity in the US. Dan Snook (above) joins Shed Media US from Firecracker Films where he was senior VP, development, working on shows including Gypsy Sisters for Lifetime and Zombie Apocalypse for Discovery. At Shed he […]
The UK’s Channel 4 has commissioned a trio of programmes that spotlight companies going against the grain and performing well despite the on going economic recession. The Who’s Getting Rich season will comprise a pair of 1x60mins docs on pawnbrokers and a prolific ‘jack-of-all-trades’ trader, respectively; and a 2x60mins character-led doc featuring a London scrap […]
Zodiak Media has taken international rights to one-off documentary The Man with the 10-Stone Testicles. Zodiak Rights, the international division of Zodiak, has picked up the rights to the 1x60mins doc from Tinopolis-owned UK producer Firecracker Films (Big Fat Gypsy Wedding). It has already secured its first sale for the show, with Discovery’s female-skewing […]
About Corporate Finance, the television-focused M&A firm that has overseen deals including Tinopolis’ acquisition of A Smith & Co and Sony’s acquisition of Left Bank Pictures, has bought rival Mediatique’s corporate finance unit. The deal will help ACF expand its advisory business into the US TV production market, which is said to be fertile ground for […]
