ZDF Enterprises acquires Off The Fence

Germany’s ZDF Enterprises (ZDFE) has acquired Dutch non-fiction producer and distributor Off The Fence (OTF), with CEO and founder Ellen Windemuth remaining as its CEO.

Ellen Windemuth

The commercial arm of the German pubcaster has taken 100% of OTF, which was founded in 1994 and produces and distributes factual programming.

OTF’s production arm has created more than 500 hours of content for broadcasters including History, the BBC, Channel 4, PBS, Discovery and National Geographic. It specialises in science, natural history, adventure and history.

The distribution arm has a catalogue of over 6,500 hours of content across the wildlife, science, travel, people, culture and lifestyle genres. It has offices in Amsterdam, London, Cape Town and Mainz.

Windemuth said: “We are very excited to join such a clever and dynamic group. We have worked closely together for 20 years, and there is a lot of mutual respect. We have developed a synergistic common strategy and I look forward to realising it together.”

Fred Burcksen, president and CEO of ZDFE, added: “Ellen has been a valued partner of ZDFE in general and of ZDFE.unscripted in particular for many years. We have always admired her innovative strength, creative spirit and economical power. For all of us, it was the next logical step in our partnership to join forces and networks in order to enable us to jointly be even more successful in the future.”

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.