Campaign Profile

Sonia Fleck, CEO at Bomanbridge Media, outlines her plans to expand the Singapore-based company with catalogue acquisitions and potential mergers, while also focusing on growth in the factual, kids and digital sectors, starting with Content Europe this month.

What will 2025’s merger with West One mean for Bomanbridge Media?

The integration of West One, now Bomanbridge West, is a key step in our evolution from distribution into a more vertically integrated content company. It gives us a strong UK production base and a strategic anchor for developing original IP, particularly across factual and premium unscripted.

We’re looking closely at regional hubs like Bristol, where there is exceptional creative and post-production talent, especially in natural history, allowing us to produce ambitious content in a cost-efficient way. In a market where broadcaster budgets are tightening, that efficiency is essential.

This expansion is already supporting premium collaborations with OceanX, including Mysteries of the Red Sea (1×60’) and Azores – Mountain of Giants (1×60’), currently in production, a cinematic expedition exploring one of the Atlantic’s most remarkable and little-explored marine ecosystems. These partnerships enable us to deliver high-quality programming while maintaining commercial viability, building on the strong production track record established under Carl Hall.

Last year you also acquired the Doclights catalogue. How will this change things for Bomanbridge?

The catalogue strengthens our pipeline for original production. We’re developing a new slate for 2026 with them and expect to launch 10 to 15 new titles in the blue-chip wildlife space. Recent highlights from the latest Doclights slate include Wild Builders, exploring the extraordinary engineering skills found across the animal kingdom; Ties That Bind, examining the powerful relationships that shape survival in the wild; and Nature’s Opportunist, revealing how animals adapt and thrive in rapidly changing environments. These premium 1×60’ natural history specials form part of a broader wildlife collection designed to deliver relevant behavioural storytelling.

Are you now looking for more catalogues to potentially acquire this year?

Absolutely. We currently have several catalogues under review and see this as a key part of our growth strategy, particularly as we build out our digital and streaming ecosystem. In today’s market, scale alone isn’t enough; it’s about owning adaptable IP that can travel across platforms and formats. That’s why we’re especially focused on acquiring rights-rich catalogues where we have meaningful control over both the programming and the underlying footage.

This approach also strengthens our position as a content-first company from an asset perspective, ensuring we are not just distributing content, but owning and maximising the long-term value of what we control. As audiences increasingly consume across multiple platforms, often in very different formats, we see significant opportunity to repackage and reimagine content for digital use, including shortform, vertical storytelling, FAST and creator-led environments. Ultimately, these acquisitions are about building a more agile content engine – one that allows us to meet audiences where they are, while unlocking greater value from our IP in an increasingly fragmented media landscape.

With all this new content, are you expanding your sales team?

Yes, we are. As our content pipeline grows, we’re expanding both our traditional sales team and bringing in digital-first executives who can drive the next phase of rights monetisation across streaming, FAST and emerging platforms. That means combining strong distribution expertise with platform-native thinking around audience, format and data-driven sales. Alongside internal growth, we’re also exploring smart partnerships with like-minded companies. The focus is on creating genuinely symbiotic relationships where different strengths across the value chain come together to unlock new revenue streams and maximise the value of content in a rapidly evolving media landscape.

Is ‘cracking America’ part of your plans for 2026?

Not in the traditional linear commissioning sense. Our focus in the US is primarily on digital monetisation, where we’re already seeing strong momentum across AVoD and FAST platforms. Over the past year, we’ve generated very meaningful revenue growth from these deals, and we intend to continue building and nurturing those partnerships. We are developing a more structured YouTube and digital-first strategy, working with platform partners and producers to create new windows and monetisation opportunities for both longform and shortform content.

The US remains in a period of consolidation and transition, particularly on the linear side. Rather than pursuing scale for its own sake, we’re taking a more considered approach, focusing on targeted collaborations and opportunities that align with our broader archive and cost-effective approach as well as digital-first strategy. We are also building relationships with independent producers in North America, sourcing new factual series and scalable formats that can travel globally across both linear and digital platforms.

What is your strategy regarding joint ventures, copros, alliances and potential M&A?

Coproductions remain a core pillar of our strategy. Each year, we typically do a handful of coproductions across Asia-Pacific and/or Europe, allowing us to combine regional strengths, access incentives and build globally relevant content. We have built a great relationship with Story Surge Films and have successfully collaborated with them on our blue-chip wildlife show Reclaim the Rainforest (2×60’). We have just agreed a partnership on the one-hour wildlife special that is set in Botswana: Big Little Giants. In 2026, we’re also looking to expand our footprint into Latin America, with a goal of setting up a coproduction in Colombia.

Lastly, we have set a clear objective to complete two new mergers or structured alliances this year, targeting partners that can accelerate our growth in specific areas. In particular, we are looking to align with a production studio to more seamlessly integrate development and post-production capabilities into our broader pipeline. While we already have the content base and partnerships to build compelling FAST channel brands, we believe that a strategic alliance with a nimble, digitally focused partner will enable us to accelerate scale and execution far more effectively.

How important is your kids’ content when it comes to this digital growth?

Kids’ content is a key focus for us. We have a dedicated Bomanbridge Kids’ division and are exploring setting up a separate entity in France to capitalise on the exceptional production talent there. We are also mindful of the EU quota, which is important to us. Bomanbridge Kids is focused on developing and sourcing character-led children’s and family content, while building relationships with independent creators and studios globally.

Kids’ content has undergone a profound transformation, with AI and digital platforms reshaping how IP is developed, discovered and monetised. Our strategy is focused on character-led IP built with digital audiences in mind from the outset, allowing brands to grow organically before expanding into longer-form storytelling, licensing and franchise opportunities. We are developing these worlds natively for digital platforms, with audience engagement strategies spanning key markets including the US and China, while also exploring opportunities within the growing ‘kidult’ space.

This approach is reflected in our shareholding position in the Singapore-based Cubemelt brand, where we are developing the next phase of The Misadventures of Cubemelt into a refreshed, longer-form IP with a broader cross-platform strategy. Alongside this, we are working with the independent creators of Penny for Your Soul, a young-adult supernatural comedy animation in development, supporting its expansion and partner strategy.

Vertical content is hot right now. What opportunities do you see in this space?

We are working diligently on plans for this, both in factual and in the high-end observational doc/scripted space. We will have more to announce on this shortly, including key production partnerships both in the UK and South Africa.

You’re heading to Content Europe this month. What are your key shows for Lisbon?

We have a broad portfolio of content to showcase in Lisbon and we continue to grow our premium factual slate. Recently delivered Decisions, Decisions: The Science of Choice (1×60’), commissioned for CBC’s flagship strand The Nature of Things, explores why humans struggle to make good decisions and how breakthroughs in decision science can transform the choices we make in everyday life.

In parallel, The Internationalists (1×90’), currently in production, is a powerful feature documentary following foreign volunteers fighting in Ukraine, told through exclusive frontline footage, intimate character-driven storytelling and unprecedented access across multiple phases of the conflict. The film explores identity, purpose and the human cost of modern warfare, offering a timely and globally relevant perspective, and we are currently seeking pre-sale partners as production progresses.

We are also expanding our wildlife pipeline with Extraordinary Wild Animals (6×60’), a visually ambitious natural history series exploring survival and adaptation across Earth’s most extreme environments, reinforcing our strategy to build scalable factual series with volume for global platforms. At the same time, we continue to strengthen our Seventh Art partnership and arts portfolio, in particular, the company’s Exhibition on Screen strand. Recent releases include Turner & Constable (1×90’), which ties in with the groundbreaking Tate exhibition, and Caravaggio (1×90’). While niche, this genre continues to attract loyal broadcasters such as Arte and cultural platforms worldwide.