Reuters says both parties could hold stakes in enlarged business
ITV is in early stage talks with Abu Dhabi-backed investment group RedBird IMI about a potential merger of their production businesses, according to Reuters.
RedBird already owns All3Media following its £1.15bn acquisition last year and a merger would create one of the biggest production groups in the world, with combined revenues ofcirca £3.2bn, based on 2023 numbers.
One idea being floated is that ITV would separate its broadcast business from ITVS and that it and RedBird would both hold stakes in the merged production giant.
This is not the first time that splitting ITV Studios from ITV’s broadcasting and streaming operations has been mooted.
In November last year, RedBird IMI, KKR-backed Mediawan and France’s TF1 Group were all reportedly considering deals with ITV and/or ITV Studios, according to a separate report from Sky News.
RedBird IMI launched in late 2022 as a joint venture between New York based private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners, founded in 2014 by Gerry Cardinale and International Media Investments (IMI), a global media company based in Abu Dhabi. Former CNN president Jeff Zucker is its chief executive.
ITV Studios’ UK labels include Big Talk, The Garden and Twofour, while All3Media’s domestic assets include Studio Lambert, Raw and Optomen.
ITV Studios also owns labels in a dozen countries around the world, such as Lingo Pictures in Australia, Italy’s Cattleya and US-based firms including High Noon Entertainment, ITV America and Tomorrow Studios.
Its distribution business holds rights to more than 90,000 hours of programming.
All3Media, meanwhile, houses more than 35,000 hours in its catalogue and owns production companies in half a dozen countries, including All3Media America in the US, The Traitors creator IDTV in Belgium and Filmpool in Germany.
Both ITV and All3Media declined to comment.
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