Creative director, executive producer and format creator Fintan Maguire has launched the new Belfast-based production company High Rock Media.
Primarily centered in Northern Ireland, High Rock Media also has a base in London. It has already secured two new series commissions from broadcasters Channel 4 and Channel 5 for a format and doc series, respectively.
High Rock’s first format commission was from Deborah Dunnett for Channel 4. The order is for a three-part prime-time series challenging the perceptions of supermarket loyalty in an experiment that looks to transform consumer spending habits in eye-opening and life-changing ways. The commission is with funding from Northern Ireland Screen.
For Channel 5, an unnamed four-part documentary series, commissioned by Federico Ruiz, celebrates the history of Cheshire by following the lives of its residents. It will broadcast later this year. It is a co-production with GroupM Motion Entertainment.
Maguire is founder, managing director and creative director of the new venture. His most recent role was as director of factual at Rumpus Media, and prior to that, he was an executive producer at Spun Gold and Crackit Productions.
High Rock Media has already tapped RTS award-winning Catriona Doyle as development executive, who has worked on entertainment brands such as Strictly Come Dancing as well as quiz and game show formats such as The Weakest Link and Ready Steady Cook. Doyle held posts at the BBC and Endemol in London before moving back to Belfast, where she spent ten years working for Waddell Media.
“Launching a production company has always been my ambition, but to realize that goal in what is arguably one of the most challenging times in our television history was inevitably daunting,” Maguire said. “To be able to launch with two series from Channel 4 and Channel 5 is really exciting—thank you to the commissioning editors and to Northern Ireland Screen for helping to make that happen.
“I love making television, and our ambition is to take viewers on a voyage of discovery in entertaining ways—both these commissions have that ethos at their heart, and we hope this is the start of delivering many such series in the future.”
