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Sky takes majority stake in Avanti

Sky Vision, the production and distribution division of European satcaster Sky, has increased its stake in UK prodco Avanti Media to a majority holding.

Jane Millichip

Sky Vision acquired a minority shareholding in Avanti in early 2017 but is now upping that to a controlling 51%.

It brings Avanti into the Sky Vision production portfolio alongside nine other companies, including Bake Off producer Love Productions, Blast Films, True North and Sugar Films in the UK and Jupiter Entertainment, Znak & Co and Talos Films in the US.

Avanti has bases in Cardiff and London and was founded by Emyr Afan and Mair Davies in 1997. The company is a factual and entertainment specialist, producing both UK network and Welsh-language programming.

In 2017, Avanti and coproduction partner Nine Lives jointly won the BBC tender for the three-year contract to produce the pubcaster’s long-running religious series Songs of Praise.

It also hired Neil Grant, a Bafta-winning executive producer and creative director based in London.

Sky Vision already has a distribution relationship with Avanti via a two-year first-look deal agreed in 2016.

Sky Vision MD Jane Millichip said: “We have been working with Avanti for two years now, so the acquisition of a majority stake is a natural extension of our joint growth strategy. We believe Sky Vision will provide strong commercial partnership, and Avanti is a complementary fit in our growing production portfolio as a network and nations and regions supplier.”

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