STV Productions & GroupM Entertainment Join Forces

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GLASGOW: STV Productions and GroupM Entertainment have teamed up to establish a strategic development partnership that will see the two firms co-invest, co-develop and co-produce concepts across a range of genres.

The focus of the agreement will be on the creation of new entertainment, factual and drama projects that will target major broadcasters in the U.K. and across the globe. The companies will work together internationally and will also work with third-party distributors. The first project set to be developed as a pilot under this agreement is a documentary series titled The Dressing Room, which will be available to present to broadcasters later this year.

The partnership builds on the companies' production and development relationship that resulted in co-productions such as The Poison Tree (ITV); Perez Hilton: Superfan (ITV2); Prison: First and Last 24 Hours (Sky1) and Safeword (ITV2). This is a non-exclusive partnership that will see both STV Productions and GroupM Entertainment continue to work with other channels, distributors and content creators.

Alan Clements, the director of content at STV Productions, said: “We are delighted to be announcing this significant development in the strong relationship that has already formed between STV Productions and GroupM Entertainment. This arrangement will bring together the best of both companies to co-develop projects and achieves increased scale and a new impetus to our development activities across a range of genres. We look forward to working closely with our colleagues at GME in this next phase of our successful partnership.”

Tony Moulsdale, the director of programming at GroupM Entertainment, commented: “This partnership further cements a very successful relationship with STV built over several years. It shows what’s possible if you take an imaginative approach to content both creatively and commercially. This is about investing in the early stages of development and taking the long view on high value IP, especially on development that is expensive or time consuming. But ultimately it’s about giving broadcasters greater choice where they are telling us they want it. Strong effective collaboration and clear focus from conception to exploitation, targeted at what commissioners want both in the U.K. and globally, will allow us to create unparalleled opportunities for both our businesses.”