ITV Studios Opens French Production Hub

PARIS: ITV Studios has extended its global footprint with the opening of its seventh international production office, ITV Studios France, which will be led by Francois Florentiny as director general.

The French post will create new formats, along with exploiting existing formats from ITV Studios. The company’s other operations are set up in the U.K., Los Angeles, Cologne, Madrid, Stockholm and Sydney.

Florentiny launched his own creative format company, Flow Productions, in 2004, consulting for companies such as Télé Images, Coyote, Extreme Sports Channel (Chellomedia), Scarlett Productions, NRJ12, Zadig Productions, ARTE, TLC, Nordisk and Banijay. ITV Studios’ finished program sales will continue to be handled through the company’s London office by ITV Studios Global Entertainment sales executive David Wilcox, led by Tobi de Graaff, the director of global TV distribution.

Florentiny commented, “I am very pleased to join ITV Studios at this exciting time in its international development. There are many opportunities and benefits for French broadcasters to work with us from the outset. We are able to offer highly successful, tried and tested formats as well as develop tailor-made, innovative programming across many genres.”

Lee Bartlett, the managing director of ITV Studios, said, “I’m delighted to announce the launch of our seventh production center and the key appointment of Francois Florentiny—one of the best formats consultants in the business. Our international growth strategy is based on the continued expansion of our global production footprint and the creation of new formats in each country that can travel to other members of our group. Francois has an exceptional knowledge of the French market and, with him at the helm, we are looking forward to working with many broadcast clients throughout France.”

Remy Blumenfeld, the director of formats at ITV Studios, added, “We’re opening shop in France because the French already love our programs. Francois is the perfect person to run ITV Studios France because commissioners there trust him to know exactly what they want and to bring them the best scripted and unscripted formats from around the world.”