ALL3MEDIA Buys Up Optomen

LONDON: ALL3MEDIA has finalized a deal to acquire Optomen, along with its U.S. production arm, Optomen Productions, and its joint-venture subsidiary with Gordon Ramsay, One Potato Two.

Optomen’s catalogue includes Great British Menu, Mary, Queen of Shops and What To Eat Now for BBC2; Police, Camera, Action for ITV; Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, The F Word and Heston’s Feasts for Channel 4; Market Kitchen for Good Food; The Business Inspector for Five; and Ration Book Britain for Yesterday. In the U.S. a number of hit shows have come from Optomen for a wide range of broadcasters, including Kitchen Nightmares for FOX; Worst Cooks In America for Food Network; Monsters Inside Me for Animal Planet and Samantha Brown’s Great Weekends for The Travel Channel.

Pat Llewellyn, the managing director of Optomen, said: "The television landscape has changed dramatically and now feels like the right time to benefit from the scale and experience of ALL3MEDIA. The support they’ll give us on the business side will allow us to spend more time doing what we love most, working with the best talent to make fantastic programs that people want to watch."

Ramsay commented: "I’m very happy to be joining ALL3MEDIA and look forward to growing One Potato Two Potato in the U.K. and in America. Twenty years of working in kitchens has taught me that success is always a team effort, and with the help of the team at ALL3MEDIA I’m confident we can take things to the next level and soon reach three potato, four potato and more."

Steve Morrison, the chief executive of ALL3MEDIA, added: "Pat Llewellyn and her team have done a wonderful job with Optomen producing long-running, award-winning and genre defining TV series one after another. They are a jewel in the U.K.’s TV crown and have a distinguished record in discovering new on screen talent and developing shows that get the best out of that talent. And with One Potato, Two Potato they have created a brilliant vehicle to make the most out of the unstoppable force of nature that is Gordon Ramsay."

Morrison continued: "We look forward to helping Optomen and One Potato Two Potato grow in Britain, America and around the world. We welcome them to the ALL3MEDIA family."