DRG Ties Up with Wildseed

LONDON: DRG and Wildseed Studios have entered into a partnership that involves the funding and distribution of new scripted content.

The agreement sees DRG providing funding for a fresh round of pilots in Q1 2017. The investment is uncapped and will continue to flow as new ideas are discovered by Wildseed. DRG will also become the distributor for Wildseed’s content.

Wildseed Studios, a content and talent incubation company launched in 2013 by Miles Bullough and Jesse Cleverly, looks to make initial investments of up to £10,000 in an idea or creator with potential and then seeks to either grow the franchise themselves post-pilot or connect with premium platform partners to develop and grow the project further. The business is focused on finding scripted content with characters that appeal to millennial audiences, with comedy, genre fiction and kids 6-to-11 being key areas of focus.

“We are constantly looking for exciting opportunities that both provide us with a new pipeline of content and that encourage us to look at different ways of working in our changing world,” said Richard Halliwell, DRG’s managing director. “Our new relationship with Wildseed is ripping up the ‘distributor rulebook’; we are investing in creators with no ‘mainstream’ experience and no access to market—who are amazingly talented and just need some seed investment to gain momentum. DRG is evolving to become more inventive and creative, and less risk-adverse, in order to take full advantage of the fast-moving developments in the digital space. Miles and Jesse are pioneers in this evolving business and we are fascinated to be a part of the ride and see where this joint journey takes us both.”

Bullough commented: “We have had a very busy and successful four years, introducing some fantastic new talent and ideas to the world, gaining commissions and winning awards. But we felt the time was right to go up a gear and this partnership with DRG is effectively allowing us to launch phase two of our business, and to reload the Wildseed incubator. Not only do we have extra investment, but also DRG’s team of experts at our disposal, who will help us meet new buyers and platforms and share developments in the international marketplace.

“We met a number of potential partners over the past few months but absolutely loved DRG’s buccaneering and enterprising attitude, its enthusiasm for what we are trying to achieve—and its genuine passion for searching for brilliant new talent. We are extremely excited about Wildseed’s future and can’t wait for new submissions to start rolling in.”