talkbackTHAMES to Split Brand into Four Labels

LONDON: The British production house talkbackTHAMES is ditching its name as part of a restructure that splits the brand into four separate departments under the new division FremantleMedia UK.

Effective January 1, 2012, the restructure divides the indie producer into separate costumer-focused label brands focused on comedy, comedy entertainment, entertainment and factual. Each label gets its own managing director, head of development and head of production. All labels are supported by a new division, FremantleMedia UK, led by Sara Geater as CEO.

Thames, focused on entertainment, will be led by Richard Holloway. Suzy Lamb will serve as the head of Thames productions and Andrew Llinaresas the head of Thames/Syco co-productions. Talkback, dedicated to comedy entertainment, will be headed by Dan Baldwin. Retort, the scripted comedy label, will see Jon Rolph in the top post. Boundless combines factual entertainment, factual features and special factual into a single factual-focused division. A managing director for Boundless is being recruited, though Michele Kurland will play a key role in the label.

Sara Geater, the CEO of FremantleMedia UK, commented: “This new label structure allows us to showcase the amazing talent within our business by enabling us to be even more creative and innovative to better respond to our customer’s needs. We’re committed to developing inspiring entertainment for broadcasters and audiences, and I believe that this structure of labels with big ambitions will ensure we better serve our customers with bespoke propositions that will deliver them the hits of the future.”

FremantleMedia UK will continue to invest heavily in the labels, development and new talent and will provide key support functions such as legal, finance, HR and communications support. The labels will maximize the commercial value of their content through FremantleMedia Enterprises and will have access to the global FremantleMedia creative network.