Denmark’s Monday Media acquires majority stake in Finnish firm Rabbit Films

Copenhagen-based producer Monday Media has acquired a majority stake in Finnish prodco Rabbit Films.

Morten Bank

The current Rabbit management team, CEO Olli Suominen and creative director Tuomas Summanen, will continue in their positions and remain co-owners of the company.

Rabbit Films was founded in 2000 and until this deal was still owned by Finnish comedy and entertainment group The Dudesons, comprising Jarno Laasala, Jukka Hildén, Jarppi Leppälä and HP Parviainen.

The company has developed international format hits including Over the Atlantic and Ultimate Escape, which is currently in production for Seven Network in Australia.

In Finland, the firm has established itself as a producer of local versions of formats including Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Taskmaster, Love It or List It and Sort Your Life Out, as well as drama productions such as Summer of Sorrow, Bubble and Mobile 101.

With the acquisition, Monday is also gaining a well-established distribution department led by Jonathan Tuovinen. The Rabbit International team will take over the distribution of the new formats and tape coming from the Monday Media Group companies, and Rabbit’s original formats will go via Monday Media companies in the markets where they operate.

The deal follows Monday Media’s takeover of financially stricken ImpactTV a fortnight ago  and means Monday now runs a total of 13 labels in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Morten Bank, chairman of Monday Media, said: “It’s a big day for us. We are very happy to add such a successful and creative company to our group and very excited to be working with the highly skilled team in Helsinki.

“Olli, Tuomas and the rest of the team have proven to be some of the most creative format developers and producers in our region. We are so pleased that they are joining the group in our ambition to continuously deliver top entertainment and formats out of the two most creative regions in Europe – the Nordics and Benelux.”

Suominen added: “This deal is a natural next step for us after more than 20 years of content creation with The Dudesons as majority owners. We are proud of what we have achieved to this point, but we are looking forward to becoming part of a strong and ambitious group in pursuit of future successes and creativity in an ever-intensifying competitive environment.”