ITV buys into Cirkus

UK broadcaster ITV has taken a minority stake in Nordic on-demand channel Cirkus.

Cirkus launched in Sweden in December 2013 in partnership with ComHem, the country’s biggest cable operator, and Swedish DTT platform, Boxer.

The service is billed as offering best of British TV series through long-term programme supply agreements with ITV Studios Global Entertainment, BBC Worldwide, Endemol and All3Media International.

It was founded by UK IPTV pioneer Hugh Williams, who helped launch HomeChoice and Tiscali TV, and former Universal Studios and Flextech exec Mark Bradford.

“Cirkus is a compelling service that offers a wide choice of the British series that Nordic audiences love so much, available on-demand for consumers to enjoy at their convenience,” said ITV Studios Global Entertainment senior VP of global digital media Dan Gopal.

He added that ITV was looking forward to working with the business as it continues to grow. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Williams and Bradford said in a joint statement: “There is a real appetite for quality British drama and TV series in the Nordics, and we have the perfect content partners to make Cirkus the destination for the best of British programming. Cirkus has already got off to a flying start; we are now looking to build on this and expect to be announcing further Nordic platform distribution deals in the coming months.”

Last month, ITV took a controlling stake in DiGa Vision, the New York-based reality and scripted prodco behind shows such as Teen Wolf.

That deal marked its fourth US acquisition after it paid US$40m for a 61.5% controlling stake in Duck Dynasty prodco Gurney Productions in 2012, followed by US$25.65m for a controlling share in US reality TV producer High Noon Entertainment (Cake Boss) and US$30m for a controlling stake in Thinkfactory Media (Hatfields & McCoys).

Recent UK deals include £18m (US$27.4m) for London-based indie The Garden, the production company behind formats 24 Hours in A&E and The Audience.

Then, in July last year, it acquired comedy specialist Big Talk (Friday Night Dinner) for an initial sum of about £12.5m, which could rise to almost £30m, depending on Big Talk’s future performance.