Fremantle Invests in A Team Productions

Fremantle has acquired a majority stake in the Belgian company A Team Productions (ATP), behind the short films Land of the Heroes and Baghdad Messi.

Led by Kobe van Steenberghe and Hendrik Verthé, ATP is also behind Patsers, which attracted more than 500,000 viewers and was sold to more than 37 countries, as well as Torpedo and Yummy and the newly launched Ketnet series Kids on the Block.

Later this year, the feature-length Baghdad Messi film and the high-end fiction series Alter Ego will also be released.

Said van Steenberghe and Verthé: “After intense preliminary discussions, we have a very good feeling about the experienced Fremantle team, including Georgette Schlick, Claud Van Gessel, Manon Van Der Hoek, Dave Heuten and Annemieke van Vliet as driving forces of the European market. This combined with their strong position in the global industry, we and our entire team are looking forward extremely hard to working with Fremantle to further grow our business in both the local and international markets. We love it when a plan comes together.”

Dave Heuten, CEO of Fremantle Belgium, added: “I have long admired Kobe, Hendrik and the whole ATP team’s work. I am excited to be going on this journey with them, finding synergies and developing new content together—I can’t wait to work with this brilliant team and achieve great things together.”