Report claims buyers could take majority or minority stake in production company

Keely Hodgkinson BBC Spoty Whisper

Whisper is reportedly in talks over the sale of a minority or majority stake in its business.

Sky News has revealed that the production company is working with consultancy firm KPMG to organise talks with multiple bidders. Sony Pictures Television currently owns 30% of Whisper’s shares, with the founders and management team holding the remainer.

Whisper was founded by current CEO Sunil Patel alongside Jake Humphrey and David Coulthard in 2010, with Channel 4 coming on board as a minority shareholder in 2015 before being replaced by Sony in 2020. 

It employs roughly 300 people, and has offices in London, Cardiff, Manchester and Riyadh, plus plans to expand in the US and Europe. A number of leadership changes have recently come into place at Whisper, with Richard Lancaster becoming CTO, Bethan Evans moving to managing director of sport and Mark Cole to group managing director, plus Two Circles co-founder Matt Rogan and former Turner Sports exec Tina Shah joining its advisory board. 

Whisper became the first company outside of the BBC to produce the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year show last year, and has also worked on documentaries with the likes of England Test cricket captain Ben Stokes and the late Sven Goran-Eriksson, which won the Broadcast Sport Award for Sport Documentary of the Year (over 60 minutes).

Other projects include live and highlights content such as the Paralympics, Women’s FA Cup, which won the Broadcast Sport Awards’ Sport Production of the year, and Channel 4’s F1 coverage, as well as diversifying into non-sport with the Wheel Of Fortune, Jeopardy, and more gameshows. It also works with rights holders such as UEFA, Wimbledon and the NFL.

In its most recent accounts, Whisper made a £4.3m pre-tax profit for the year to March 31, 2024. 

Whisper declined to comment when approached.