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C4 buys into first drama indie

UK broadcaster Channel 4 (C4) has bought into its first drama indie as it enters the next phase of its £20m (US$33m) investment in local production companies.

C4 will take a 25% stake in Eleven Film, the indie co-founded by Jamie Campbell and Joel Wilson in 2006. Eleven Film has produced series including C4’s Cast Offs, BBC1’s Candid Cameron, Sky1’s My Breasts Could Kill Me and Playhouse Presents: Mr Understood for Sky Arts.

The deal – financial terms of which were not disclosed – is the broadcaster’s fifth investment as part of it ‘Growth Fund’ initiative detailed at the beginning of this year and follows minority stakes taken in factual indies Arrow Media, Lightbox, True North and Popkorn.

Wilson said the investment would “build an even more dynamic and creative team” and would “multiply our drama, comedy and factual output for all the broadcasters we work with at home and internationally.”

The indie is currently filming a three-part drama for Sky Living called The Enfield Haunting, starring Timothy Spall (Mr Turner). The company has a number of other shows in development with Sky, the BBC and C4 and is also working on Nazareth, a new series for US network Fox that tells the story of the teenage Jesus.

Like all companies receiving investment from C4, Eleven Film will not benefit from minimum guarantees on commissions, the broadcaster said.

C4 also noted that Growth Fund investments would not influence the strategy of its commissioning team “which will continue to work with the broadest range of suppliers and in a manner consistent with the Code of Practice for Commissioning of Independent Productions and with equality of access.”

The broadcaster initially received applications from around 100 companies following the announcement of the Growth Fund, an initiative designed to aid the growth and development of UK creative businesses.

C4 CEO David Abraham’s initial announcement of the fund at the Royal Television Society conference in Cambridge last September had some industry observers questioning whether C4’s public service licence would allow it to make such investments. But regulator Ofcom gave the all-clear due to the minority nature of the buy-ins – less than 25% in each case for a period of up to five years.

C4 continues to take submissions from interested independent producers and expects to announce its next Growth Fund investments by the end of Q1 2015. Around three-quarters of the fund is still available.

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