Last year, Workerbee Group announced plans to invest in and forge creative partnerships in the north of England and Wales, looking to help grow the industry outside of London and around its base in Manchester. The opportunity arose earlier this year to put that plan into action with former Workerbee head of development Ben Smith setting up Ty\u2019r Ddraig with the intention of producing high-volume factual series in Wrexham. With the backing of Workerbee and Banijay UK\u2019s Growth Fund, Ty\u2019r Ddraig has now opened North Wales up for business in the factual arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d already seen that there was a real appetite from broadcasters, particularly so at the PSBs, to commission content out of Wales,\u201d Smith, now serving as creative director at the new company, says. \u201cWith North Wales being underrepresented both on- and off-screen, that was the niche we [sought to fill].\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got this big TV industry in Manchester, the biggest one outside of London,\u201d notes Rick Murray, CEO of Workerbee. \u201cWe always used to talk when Ben worked for us about the fact that if you come from Wrexham and you want to work in television or film, you come to Manchester.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a sizable production community particularly in the south of Wales for non-scripted and drama, and there\u2019s a real corridor between Cardiff, Bristol and, to an extent, London,\u201d Smith points out. \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do is mirror that in the north of Wales with that corridor forming between northeast Wales, Wrexham, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard somebody say that if you used to live in Wrexham and you now work in one of those cities, you\u2019re a \u2018Wrex-ile,\u2019\u201d Murray jokes. \u201cSo, we\u2019re trying to get the Wrex-iles to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only are they looking to draw back those who had to leave due to lack of opportunity, but they are also planning to offer training for those new to the industry. So far, the plan is to have two sound trainees studying sound engineering and a postproduction apprentice. Smith has also taken meetings with the local university in Wrexham on finding ways to bring a new batch of young people into the TV industry.<\/p>\n
In terms of the content Ty\u2019r Ddraig is looking to produce, \u201cwe really want to super-serve the Welsh broadcasters and platforms, so S4C, BBC Wales, making factual series in both the Welsh and English languages,\u201d Smith says. \u201cWe\u2019re based in North Wales, but we\u2019ll make shows for national and international audiences for sure. But the real starting point of focus for us is S4C [and] BBC Wales.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much of Smith\u2019s recent background has been in producing high-volume daytime shows in the factual-entertainment arena. \u201cIt\u2019s something that I\u2019ve got a lot of experience in developing and producing and, without giving anything away, the first series that we\u2019re hoping to announce soon is in that sort of space.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWorkerbee\u2019s got a great expertise and reputation almost at the other end of the scale in feature docs and sports and big-name talent,\u201d he adds. \u201cIn time, we can tap into that reputation as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what everyone is finding at the moment is that the middle has dropped out of the market,\u201d Murray says. \u201cAs advertising revenues go down and people\u2019s budgets get squeezed, the thing that is getting squeezed is the TV in the middle, the stuff that costs a mid-range price, because you can justify something premium and expensive if it brings lots of people to the channel and it\u2019s loud enough or has big enough talent to bring people in. At the other end of the scale, you can justify high-volume, low-cost because it\u2019s cheaper. So, I think there are some really interesting opportunities at both ends with Ben\u201d and Ty\u2019r Ddraig.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the deals S4C are doing on premium factual, they\u2019re joining forces with a number of other different broadcasters around the world to do big co-pro deals in unscripted for sports documentaries,\u201d Murray continues. \u201cEveryone\u2019s running for the premium things. It\u2019s sexy and exciting, but also not many people are putting their hand up and saying, \u2018Actually, we really want to get into the business of high-volume.\u2019 I think that\u2019s something that we can do and make really cost-effective out of North Wales.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being in the northwest region of England and Wales is \u201can exciting place to be because obviously, TV production has plateaued around the world,\u201d Murray adds. \u201cWe had some fantastic years of investment from streamers, who came in big and were happy to make a loss for a long time in order to build their portfolios and build their business. That seems to have run its course now. Whereas the really big centers of production\u2014L.A., London\u2014feel like they\u2019re plateauing or maybe even some of the business is leaving, places like the north of England and North Wales have got everything to gain from that because people are looking to do keener deals.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also helps, Murray notes, that Wrexham is somewhat of a well-known name now, what with Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney buying Wrexham FC in late 2020 and broadcasting the experience in\u00a0Welcome to Wrexham<\/em>. \u201cWe\u2019re making something at the moment for NBC, and when I said, \u2018Oh, we\u2019re backing a company in Wrexham,\u2019 all of the execs at NBC went, \u2018Oh, yeah, Wrexham! It\u2019s in North Wales, right?\u2019 Everybody knows suddenly where this place is.\u201d<\/p>\n The fact that Reynolds and McElhenney were able to purchase the local football club is also indicative of the Wrexham City Council\u2019s willingness to open the region up and do business with those seeking to build up its industries. And it\u2019s not just the local government willing to offer support in this venture, as the Welsh government\u2019s Creative Wales has offered support to grow the non-scripted community in North Wales as well. \u201cCreative Wales is being very forward-thinking in the way that they are going about trying to grow the industry within Wales,\u201d Smith says. \u201cThat can only be a good thing for us.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just a good thing for outsiders or those looking to return to Wrexham after having to work elsewhere, it\u2019s great news for young locals interested in getting into the industry. Training them up from the beginning of their careers is great for the company, as well, as they then have the opportunity to grow together.<\/p>\n In Workerbee\u2019s experience, \u201cbecause we\u2019re growing up in regional outposts, we get staff at a young age and train them, and they stick with the company,\u201d Murray says. \u201cWe\u2019ve got many members of staff who\u2019ve been with us since our inception. We\u2019ve got 40 full-time staff here at Workerbee, which is a lot of full-time staff for any unscripted company. That\u2019s because we\u2019ve got a group of people that we\u2019ve grown with us to make our content. And that\u2019s because we\u2019re not in London, so we haven\u2019t got the freelance pool. It\u2019s born out of necessity. What it means is that we can be really competitive, and we can also have great consistency in the quality of shows that we make.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith feels that Ty\u2019r Ddraig \u201cis in a somewhat privileged position of being an exciting, nimble and small indie. We can and will lavish attention on all potential buyers, but we\u2019ve also got that phenomenal backing of Workerbee and Banijay. Creatively, it\u2019s really lucky that we\u2019re able to tap into Workerbee\u2019s contacts of broadcasters, as well as using my own.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve also looked into the idea of potentially offering some select titles and formats from within the Banijay catalog [with] local Welsh-language versions of those shows,\u201d he adds. \u201cAnd then, being a small startup, it\u2019s obviously amazing to have the support of Workerbee\u2019s finance, production management, compliance and legal teams. I\u2019m spoiled, basically, in that I have the best of both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n And with this \u201cbest of both worlds\u201d scenario, combined with the support of the Welsh government through Creative Wales and Wrexham City Council, the opening of Ty\u2019r Ddraig can only be great news for natives of North Wales and buyers looking for high-volume, high-quality factual titles from an up-and-coming region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Factual trends with Ben Smith, creative director of the new label, and Rick Murray, CEO of Workerbee Group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":20393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[7562,6921,7563,7564],"class_list":["post-20392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-ben-smith","tag-rick-murray","tag-tyr-ddraig","tag-workerbee-group","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n