STV Studios Acquires Greenbird Media

STV Studios, which is behind shows such as Screw, Murder Island and Bridge of Lies, has acquired Greenbird Media for £21.4 million.

STV Studios will incorporate Greenbird’s network of 15 indie production companies, bringing its total number of labels to 24. Expanding its footprint beyond Glasgow and London, the deal gives STV Studios bases in Cardiff, Belfast, Brighton and Manchester.

Greenbird, founded in 2012, is set to produce more than 350 hours of content this year. Its credits include LEGO Masters, The Hit List, The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan and Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing.

International expansion will be key for the merged outfit, notably building on Tuesday’s Child’s and STV Studios’ format adaptation expertise.

Greenbird’s founders, Jamie Munro and Stuart Mullin, will join the STV Studios board in the roles as chief commercial officer and finance and integration director, respectively, working alongside COO Paul Sheehan and under the leadership of David Mortimer, managing director of STV Studios.

“Growing STV Studios into the U.K.’s number one nations and regions production company is one of our core strategic objectives,” said Simon Pitts, CEO of STV Group. “This transformative acquisition represents a major step towards that goal, adding significant scale and creative firepower to the group and immediately accelerating STV’s overall diversification in terms of both revenue and profit. We’re delighted to be partnering with Greenbird and to welcome their incredibly talented network of creative leaders to the STV family as we jointly aim to grow our production base in the U.K. and internationally.”

Mortimer added: “Over the last four years we have transformed STV Studios’ creative and commercial performance, so now feels like the right time to take our next big step towards becoming one of the U.K.’s most successful production networks. I’ve known and worked with many of the team at Greenbird and their associated companies previously and can’t wait to get on with the job of creating an environment for creatives to thrive in. Jamie and Stuart have built a brilliant business with a bespoke approach that has delivered fantastic results. They’ll bring unrivaled commercial expertise as part of our senior management team and I know that over the next few years, together we will be making some huge television shows for broadcasters and streamers both here in the U.K. and around the world, so this feels like an exciting new era for STV Studios.”

Munro and Mullin stated: “This is an exciting new chapter in Greenbird’s history. We are hugely proud of the Greenbird incubator model we have built. It has given creatives space to flourish and deliver some of the most innovative, entertaining and loved programs in the U.K. Their creative power is unrivaled and has been recognized by viewers, critics, awards panels and through the volume of international sales that their shows have generated. We’re delighted to be working with Simon and David at STV. We look forward to a future together helping a wider network of creatives realize their ambitions.”