KM Plus Media & Big Media Celebrate 10-Year Milestone

At MIPCOM, KM Plus Media and Big Media mark ten years of joint collaboration, having brought about more than 50 original series.

The New York-based Distribution company and Czech-based producer met at MIPCOM 2005, and the two companies began working together with a single licensing deal for a health and fitness series produced by KM Records. Four years later, the companies formed a joint venture called KM/BM. The global production and distribution joint venture has now seen more than 50 original series being produced and the establishment of five offices around the globe.

“We started our JV in one of the most challenging times in the media business, and we needed to build an efficient system for developing, funding, producing and distributing compelling content,” said Jon Loew, one of three co-founders of the JV.

Added Martin Kase, a fellow founder and president of the JV’s production company: “We write in Hollywood, we finance and sell from NY and Prague, we produce in Czech Republic, and we distribute globally. There is no need to do it all in one place anymore, and this model minimizes our risk and maximizes our returns on each project.”

The company describes itself as an “old school TV studio” handling every aspect of the business in house, allowing them to adapt to a constantly changing media environment.

“It used to be that buyers didn’t know if they wanted our shows or not. Today they are sometimes not sure what kind of shows they are looking for,” said Big Media President Danny Wilk. “We need to be able to adapt quickly, and be a solution for our customers. You can only do that if you own your own IP and if you can make decisions quickly.”

Ladislav Svestka, head of KM’s Sales, said: “Thanks to the close working relationship with our regular clients we are able to speed up our originals greenlighting process. Our high level reenactments, great CGI, and access to experts in many subject areas make us an ideal partner for international co-producers.”