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Endemol Shine to close Princess

Endemol Shine Group will close UK prodco Princess Productions at the end of 2017 and roll its existing shows into the wider group.

Richard Johnston

The 20-year-old indie, which was initially acquired by Shine in 2006 before being merged into the Endemol Shine group in 2014, is behind shows including Sunday Brunch and Taxi of Mum & Dad for the UK’s Channel 4 and The Mash Report (working title) for BBC2.

Following Princess’s closure, the shows will be produced by other companies within the wider Endemol Shine UK group along with the production teams assigned to those shows. The Wright Stuff, for Channel 5, will run the course of the contract until the end of the year within Princess.

The decision was taken following what Endemol Shine called a “full-scale review” of the business by UK CEO Richard Johnston and chief operating officer Lucinda Hicks.

The 10-week review was initiated by the impending closure of Princess’s studio space owing to redevelopment, coupled with Emma Hardy’s decision to step down as MD in July.

The news of her departure followed the exit of Conor Bailey, who was appointed joint MD at the same time as Hardy and was previously Princess’s finance director. She left in February.

Johnston said: “This is not a decision we are taking lightly and we have carefully considered all potential options for Princess Productions. However, taking into account the costs involved in moving the studio shows, the make-up of Princess’s forthcoming slate and Channel 5’s recent decision to put The Wright Stuff out to tender, we can see no alternative to this difficult commercial decision.

“Our industry is constantly evolving, with entertainment in particular going through a period of change in recent years, and in order to stay ahead of the market we need to regularly review our structure and investment.”

Endemol Shine said most of Princess’s staff are on fixed-term contracts assigned to productions and as such they will move internally with the shows or their contracts will be seen through to completion.

Hicks added: “The Princess team currently delivers 13 hours of high-quality live television each week and it is our priority to ensure that these shows, along with the other existing entertainment titles, are not impacted in any way. As such we will be working closely with the individual broadcasters and the incredibly experienced production teams at Princess to ensure a smooth transition.”

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