TV prodco Barcroft Studios rebrands as Future Studios, promotes execs

Magazine and online publisher Future PLC has rebranded its factual television production company Barcroft Studios as Future Studios, and announced a pair of promotions in its executive team.

Al Brown

Future paid £23.5m (US$30m) for the digital-focused production company in 2019 and company founder Sam Barcroft left the firm that bears his name in September last year along with COO Casper Norman.

Al Brown has now been promoted to VP of the rebranded Future Studios and is responsible for overseeing internal development and commissioning and distribution. He previously oversaw Barcroft’s factual output for Channel 4’s True Stories brand as exec producer, reporting to chief creative officer John Farrar. Brown also previously spent more than a decade at Vice UK, joining in 2008. He was a member of the team responsible for launching linear pay-TV channel Viceland, online channel Vice News and was VP of programming for Vice Studios, with responsibility for the UK division.

Ellie Winstanley

Meanwhile, Ellie Winstanley has been appointed junior exec producer. Ellie has been series producer on many of the company’s series for Snapchat and Channel 4 and will have responsibility for external digital commissions on Snapchat and on YouTube and Facebook output.

The company, led by Farrar, was recently commissioned by Channel 4 to coproduce the reboot of classic TV show GamesMaster. The Future PLC brand is set to make a return to E4 and social channels later this year, in partnership with Oculus Quest 2 from Facebook.