Asacha Media Group Acquires WAG Entertainment

Asacha Media Group has picked up majority ownership of U.K.-based factual production and distribution outfit WAG Entertainment.

Martin Durkin, WAG Entertainment’s founder and CEO, will be stepping down from his role at the end of this year, with COO Steven Green set to become managing director of the firm. He will focus on building on the company’s activities in the U.S. and U.K. while also expanding further in Asacha Media Group’s European footprint.

Asacha Media Group was founded in April 2020 by Gaspard de Chavagnac, Marina Williams and Marc-Antoine d’Halluin and is backed by funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management. Based in Paris, it also owns majority stakes in Picomedia and Stand By Me in Italy and Mintee Studio in France.

De Chavagnac and Williams, Asacha Media Group’s co-CEOs, stated: “Our partnership with WAG Entertainment adds a key new dimension to Asacha’s business, which perfectly complements our existing operations in Italy and France. In addition to expanding our presence into the U.K. and U.S., this will enable us to offer an exciting new lineup of multi-genre content to our platform partners across Europe.”

Durkin and Green added, “We are thrilled to have WAG Entertainment join forces with Asacha Media Group’s dynamic business at such an exciting time for factual and unscripted content. Our partnership and shared ambition will create significant opportunities for our business to expand into new markets, while further diversifying our output across genres and platforms.”

WAG’s current slate includes What on Earth? for Science Channel, Weird Earth for The Weather Channel, Combat Dealers for Quest and War Factories for UKTV.