ZDF Enterprises, the commercial arm of German public broadcaster ZDF, has signed an agreement to acquire a 32.5% stake in UK production company World Media Rights via holding company European Media Rights.
It is ZDF Enterprises’ first investment in a UK production company. The new investment coincides with a board restructure at World Media Rights.
Existing World Media Rights board member and company CEO Alan Griffiths is joined by David McNab who joins the company as Creative Director and ZDF Enterprises’ Vice President Corporate and Portfolio Strategy Tanja Meier-Sieden. McNab comes with a long list of blue-chip factual credits including In the Shadow of the Moon (Channel 4), Secret Universe, The Hidden Life of the Cell (BBC 2) and The Planets (BBC 2).
Founded in 2007, World Media Rights produces factual TV programming and drama reconstruction for a wide range of international broadcasters including Reelz, American Heroes Channel and Netflix. US cable programming franchises include Black Ops, Air Crash Confidential and Myth Hunters.
“We have worked with a number of distribution businesses over the years and have found ZDF Enterprises an excellent partner who can best sell our shows internationally. This investment will help us further our ambitions by producing new types of shows in the factual entertainment space,” said Alan Griffiths, CEO of World Media Rights.
Alexander Coridaß, President and CEO of ZDF Enterprises, added: “Alan is a brilliant and internationally renowned creator and producer. We have had distribution mandates of World Media Rights productions for many years and value their creative strength and economical power. Thus, it was simply the next logical step in our partnership to become a shareholder. This closer relationship will enable us to jointly produce and market even more outstanding productions for the UK, Germany and the entire world in the future.”
ZDF Enterprises’ investment is subject to approval by Germany’s Federal Cartel Office.
