Bea Hegedus Opens Indie Consultancy Outfit

LONDON: Bea Hegedus, whose previous experience includes time at MTG’s Viasat and Debmar-Mercury, has set up her own entertainment consultancy, Ashgate Media, which has already closed its first deal with dick clark productions.

Ashgate aims to provide distribution, strategy and financing services to content creators, broadcasters and new-media platforms. Following a soft launch earlier this year, the company brokered its first major trans-Atlantic deal with dick clark productions, which will distribute the Hungarian classical-music talent show Virtuosos internationally.

In a second deal, Ashgate is to provide premium global video platform FilmDoo with content-strategy and fund-raising support. Two other consultancy deals with independent film studios are also expected to be closed at the Cannes Film Festival next month.

Prior to launching Ashgate, Hegedus led the U.K. office of the Dutch business strategy consultant 3 Rivers, before which she served as MTG’s Viasat Broadcasting UK’s VP of formats and entertainment. She also previously launched and managed Debmar-Mercury International; sourced scripted and unscripted ideas for production in the U.S. for Fox TV Studios; launched ID Distribution (later acquired by DRG) alongside Sally Miles; held a sales and commercial management role at Distraction Formats; and worked as a development producer for SBS-TV2’s adaptations of the classic formats Wheel of Fortune, Hollywood Squares and Jeopardy.

Hegedus said: “Virtuosos is the first original format to break out of Hungary on to the global stage. Not only is dick clark working on a deal with one of the U.S. networks for a local version of the show, but there has already been interest in the format from a number of major territories, including China and Japan. For Ashgate, we couldn’t have hoped for a better start—or a better example of what we offer our partners in terms of matching the right companies with the right content. Virtuosos is a great show but, without our contacts, connections and expertise, it would have remained a great show on Hungarian TV. Now, it’s on course to be a global hit.”