Media Ranch Adds to Team, Bolsters Catalog

Media Ranch has brought on two consultants, acquired a pair of new unscripted formats from Ireland and optioned two of its factual formats to the U.S., Canada and France.

Media Ranch is expanding its reach into the U.K. and English-speaking Canada with the addition of two consultants. Rod Rodrigo is tasked with ramping up Media Ranch’s U.K. business. He’s held executive positions at MarVista, Gaumont, Global Agency and ICM, before starting his company in 2013, Serendipity Media.

Overseeing English Canada’s business development is Owen Kelly. Before launching his company, Antigravity Entertainment, earlier this year, Kelly handled business affairs and financing for some of Canada’s leading film and TV producers as well as Canadian studio film productions.

Two factual formats were optioned: Big Love and Comedy on the Edge. Big Love was optioned to Mustang Productions for French Canada and to 3BMG’s 3 Ball Productions for the U.S., as the first deal stemming from the new partnership with ICM. Big Love offers an intimate look into the major challenges many couples experience over the course of a long-term relationship; complacency, unhealthy behaviors and weight struggles. The inspirational and emotional series will follow three couples—each unhappy with their current lifestyles and rapid weight gain—who take on the daunting task of shedding their bad habits and excess pounds, all within eight months, in an attempt to regain themselves and save their relationship.

DR’s entertainment program Comedy on the Edge landed an option in France with producers WeMake and a new season set to premiere in Canada, adapted under the title Still Standing. CBC announced season six of Still Standing will premiere this fall on CBC TV and the free CBC Gem streaming service. The series stars comedian Jonny Harris as he travels across Canada to discover the hidden humor in small towns on the ropes.

Media Ranch’s The Story Of will be produced with Tuvalu Productions in the Netherlands. The Story Of asks important life questions: where do we come from? what is our shared, common past? and how did we become who we are? Through ten episodes, The Story Of takes viewers on a fascinating journey from the past and into the present.

Two new formats were acquired from Adare Productions in Ireland. In 12 Star Hotel, 12 celebrities experience what it is like to be on the other side of the hospitality industry when they take over a hotel and run it on their own for 16 days and nights. One season aired in Summer 2008 on RTÉ One Ireland. In The Day I was Born On, celebrities seek out the everyday people whose touching stories, heroism or hardships made the news on the day the celebrity was born. Two seasons aired on TG4 Ireland, in 2014 and 2017.

Sophie Ferron, president and executive producer of Media Ranch, said: “In these uncertain times, we are grateful at Media Ranch to have been able to stay the course. We’re rising to the challenge in part thanks to the most dedicated and talented team in entertainment history, premium content and fantastic partners. In addition to recent greenlit productions, new acquisitions and distribution deals, we are thrilled to have signed on two new representatives—Rod Rodrigo and Owen Kelly—who are helping with our long-term growth. Our recently new QTF slate (Quick Turnaround Formats) are high-quality formats with big ideas and short prep—have proven to be timely in these challenging months since crucial once productions are back. We hope our colleagues, and the industry as a whole, will be back on track, and better than ever, once COVID-19 is under control.”