ProSiebenSat.1 sets up Seven.One Studios to house production subsidiaries, sales arm

Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 has rejigged its production and international distribution business under a new umbrella brand to bring together its eight production subsidiaries and sales arm Red Arrow Studios International.

Henrik Pabst

Seven.One Studios (fka Red Arrow Studios) will be managed by CEO Henrik Pabst, chief financial officer Alexander Pesch and chief operating officer Martin Metzger.

The business, part of Seven.One Entertainment Group, has been established by the Munich-based media group after it sold its US production outfit to Peter Chernin’s The North Road Company and set up two new production companies in Cologne earlier this year.

These are formats company Cheerio Entertainment, managed by Nadine Grünfeld and Frank Kott, and Flat White Productions, which develops and produces programmes in factual entertainment, documentaries and infotainment, led by Cornelia Landgraf.

These will sit under Seven.One Studios alongside CPL Productions and Endor Productions in the UK; July August Productions in Tel Aviv; Berlin-based Pyjama Pictures, which is being developed as an incubator for young talent; Munich-, Cologne- and Berlin-based Redseven Entertainment; and Copenhagen’s Snowman Productions, creator of hit reality format Married at First Sight.

Red Arrow Studios International, meanwhile, will distribute the programming sourced from the Seven.One Studios network of production companies and third-party producers. The company, based in Unterföhring and London, is led by Tim Gerhartz and also coproduces and co-finances global entertainment content.

ProSiebenSat.1 had considered offloading its production business, then known as Red Arrow Studios, in 2019, but pulled out in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

“The demand for content is only increasing. This makes it all the more important for cross-platform providers like ProSiebenSat.1 to have access to the right content and its development, including in-house production capacities,” said Pabst, who is also chief content officer at Seven.One Entertainment Group.

“By founding Seven.One Studios, we are making ourselves more independent from the competitive German production market. Our European production houses, alongside our well-established Israeli production company, remains a vital part of our business. It is also clear we will continue to spend a large part of our local budget on the third-party producer market. Likewise, our production companies will continue to operate freely on the market and work for external clients.”