Bavaria Film Acquires Story House

Bavaria Film has acquired Story House Productions in Berlin and Story House Pictures in Unterföhring, expanding its business into factual and factual entertainment.

Story House has become one of Germany’s leading factual and factual-entertainment producers. Its long-running series include Terra X—A Day in… and The Great Food Report with chef Nelson Müller for ZDF, as well as Galileo Plus (ProSieben), Reeperbahn privat! (RTLzwei), Trucker Babes (Kabel eins) and King of Trucks (DMAX).

In the scripted arena, Story House Pictures has produced the drama series Dignity for Joyn, HBO and Amazon Prime Latin. Currently, Story House Pictures is producing the drama series Sisi for RTL and BETA.

Dr. Christian Franckenstein, CEO of Bavaria Film, said: “We are very pleased that our colleagues Oblaender, Gutzeit and Afflerbach place their trust in us to help continue the success story of Story House. Together with them as current and continuing managing directors, we will continue down this path. The German production market is characterized by an ongoing wave of consolidation. With this takeover, Bavaria Film is also staking a claim as an active participant in this consolidation process. We are doing everything we can to maintain our market position as one of the top five production houses in Germany. The expansion of our portfolio to include the growing genres of documentary and docutainment should make us even more attractive as a content provider for our clients, broadcasters and platforms.”

Carsten Oblaender, CEO and general manager of Story House, added: “The inclusion of the Story House companies into Bavaria Film family is a win-win situation—strategically and in terms of content. In a consolidating market, Story House will have even more opportunities in the future as part of one of Germany’s top five media companies to ensure high-quality development, production and marketing of its premium content.”

Andreas Gutzeit, CCO and general manager of Story House, said: “With Bavaria Film we have found a strong partner to continue the story of Story House we began 20 years ago. In a market that rewards quality, reliability and courage at the same time, we look forward to working with Christian Franckenstein and his team. The first 20 years of Story House were just the beginning.”

Jens Afflerbach, CEP and general manager of Story House, commented: “Taking Story House into the digital era with a young, strong team with high quality and entertaining content has proven to be the right thing to do, especially during the Corona crisis. We were able to deepen many partnerships and win new ones. For a producer, this is a fulfilling task, which we are now continuing together with Bavaria Film.”