Fennessy brothers head to Shine Australia

Elisabeth Murdoch’s Shine Group has opened an office in Australia, poaching Aussie TV veterans Mark and Carl Fennessy, the heads of FremantleMedia Australia (FMA), to run it.

The news follows the recent announcement that Shine is to open a production entity in Germany.

Mark and Carl Fennessy, who have held the posts of CEO and chief operating officer of FMA respectively will operate as joint CEO’s of Shine Australia. The company will launch in 2010, following a hand over period to new management of FMA.

The duo formed and led Australian boutique prodco Crackerjack, whose merger with Grundy gave rise to FMA and are behind several hits such as Australian Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Project Runway Australia and the forthcoming MasterChef.

Shine Australia, which will operate in both Australia and New Zealand, joins group production companies Firefly, Kudos, Princess Productions, Reveille, Shine TV and Shine Germany; international sales company ShineReveille International and film production arm Shine Pictures.

Shine Group CEO and chairman, Murdoch said: “Mark and Carl are simply the finest independent producers of their generation in Australia. I am convinced of this, not only because of the numerous, huge, popular hits they have brought to the screens but through the recent experience of working with them on our formats, The Biggest Loser and MasterChef.

I have long wanted to establish a creative, energetic production company in Australia as part of Shine, and I am thrilled this will now become a reality.”

Fremantle issued a statement today, which said that the Fennessy’s would be leaving their posts at the end of the November.

Simon Spalding, regional CEO, Europe and Asia-Pacific has appointed Whitehead Mann to manage the search for new leaders of FMA.

At the end of March, C21 reported that former RTL2 senior VP of programming Axel Kuehn is to head Shine Germany. The move into Germany is a precursor to a wider push into Europe, which is expected to see Shine opening up local operations in France, Spain, Italy, Scandinavia and beyond.