Scotland’s STV Studios acquires indie group Greenbird Media for $27m

Tuesday’s Child makes Lego Masters for Channel 4
Scotland’s STV Studios has acquired UK-based Greenbird Media and its network of 15 independent production companies for an initial cash consideration of £21.4m (US$27.2m).

Simon Pitts
The move comes five years after Keshet International acquired a majority stake in Greenbird, which was initially backed by BBC Studios (then BBC Worldwide)
Under the deal announced this morning, Greenbird founders Jamie Munro and Stuart Mullin will join the STV Studios board in the roles of chief commercial officer and finance and integration director respectively, working alongside chief operating officer Paul Sheehan and under MD David Mortimer.
The Greenbird group comprises prodcos Tuesday’s Child, Rumpus Media, Riverdog Productions, Kalel Productions, Flicker Productions, Crackit Productions, Goat Films, Hello Halo, Interstellar, Little Dooley, Owl Power, PI Productions, Rockerdale Studios, Top Hat and Frank Spotnitz’s prodco Big Light Productions.
Since its formation in 2012, Greenbird has built a network of producers in the UK that this year will produce over 350 hours of new programming made up of 25 returning series, including Lego Masters (Tuesday’s Child for Channel 4/Fox) and The Hit List (Tuesday’s Child for BBC One). It also has an archive of 2,000-plus hours of content, STV said.
Other shows it produces include Bafta-winning The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan (Rumpus Media for BBC Two) and Late Night Lycett (Rumpus Media for Channel 4); Kate Garraway: Caring for Derek (Flicker for ITV1); and Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing (Owl Power for BBC Two).
As a result of the acquisition, STV Studios now has expanded bases in Glasgow and London, as well as offices in Cardiff, Belfast, Brighton and Manchester. The deal increases the number of production labels within STV Studios from nine to 24.
STV said the new combined business “will pursue an international growth strategy, working with the producers to generate maximum value from their shows outside the UK.”
Tuesday’s Child, for example, already has international business with formats like Lego Masters in 20 territories including the UK and US, and STV Studios’ own Bridge of Lies is in 16 territories including the UK and Spain.
“Growing STV Studios into the UK’s number-one nations and regions production company is one of our core strategic objectives,” said Simon Pitts, STV’s CEO. “This transformative acquisition represents a major step towards that goal, adding significant scale and creative firepower to the group and immediately accelerating STV’s overall diversification in terms of both revenue and profit.”
Munro and Mullin added in a joint statement: “This is an exciting new chapter in Greenbird’s history. We are hugely proud of the Greenbird incubator model we have built. It has given creatives space to flourish and deliver some of the most innovative, entertaining and loved programmes in the UK.”