Zinc Media Regulatory News (ZIN)

3 Sep 2009 07:00



Ten Alps plc

3 September 2009

Ten Alps signs distribution deal with BBC Worldwide

Group-wide, three year term

Factual media company Ten Alps plc ("Ten Alps" or the "Company") today announces a three-year distribution deal with BBC Worldwide for all of its broadcast factual TV content. 

BBC Worldwide will provide Ten Alps with development funding.

For the first time, Ten Alps' group of leading TV documentary production companies - Brook Lapping, Blakeway, Films of Record and Below the Radar - are all included in a single deal. 

BBC Worldwide will work closely with the companies to help identify and support international opportunities within their development slates. In return it will have an exclusive first option to distribute available rights in commissioned programmes on a global basis.

High-profile programmes delivered by Ten Alps companies so far in 2009 have included Iran and the West (BBC 2), The Future of Food (BBC 2), The Madoff Hustle (BBC 2), Murder Mansion (Channel 4), China's Capitalist Revolution (BBC 2), How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin (BBC 2) and several Dispatches for Channel 4.

BBC Worldwide is the main commercial arm and a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It is considered amongst Europe's leading distributors with 22 offices around the world. In 2008/09, BBC Worldwide generated profits of £102.6 million (before exceptionals) on sales of over £1 billion. 

Alex Connock, CEO of Ten Alps, said: "We made expansion of the international potential of our programming a key goal for this year. Working with BBC Worldwide, with their unique footprint, is exactly the relationship we were looking for."

Wayne Garvie, Director of Content & Production, BBC Worldwide, said: "Ten Alps is one of the UK's most exciting media companies. Their stable provides amazing breadth in documentary, great programming made by great producers and directors. It's programming with huge international appeal and a perfect complement to our existing catalogue."

Background: Ten Alps' production companies and back catalogue

Brook Lapping

An internationally-acclaimed independent documentary production company, co-founded by Brian Lapping CBE, Anne Lapping CBE and renowned documentary producer Norma Percy, it specialises in landmark diplomatic television series such as The Second Russian Revolution, Watergate, The Death of Yugoslavia, Israel and the Arabs, Elusive Peace and Iran and the West.

Participants such as Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Slobodan Milosevic, Tony Blair, Ariel Sharon, Vladimir Putin, Francois Mitterrand, Boris Yeltsin, Mikhail Gorbachev and Henry Kissinger have revealed what really happened behind closed doors. 

The company has also produced definitive series on British political leaders including Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair and high-rating drama-documentaries for Discovery US. 

Blakeway

A multi-award winning independent production company, creating high quality, current affairs and contemporary history programmes which was founded by Denys Blakeway and now managed by Fiona Stourton. 

Blakeway has produced numerous blue chip documentaries for major British and international broadcasters. Critical and ratings successes include The Queen's Story , Hidden Treasure Houses Rivers of Blood, 1929: The Great Crash, Fighting Passions and Going Postal and Unseen Gaza, Children of the Congo, Mission Impossible, The Secret of the Austrian Cellar and The Gangster and the Pervert Peer.

Films of Record

Founded in 1979 by Roger Graef. OBE, and producer of some of the best-known observational documentaries in British television history.

Renowned projects include: Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go, Welcome to Potters Bar, Murder Blues, Breaking the Cycle, My Heart Belongs to Dad, The Protectors and Who Killed PC Blakelock ?

Recent projects have included Murder Mansion and Panorama: May Contain Nuts.

Below the Radar

A TV production company set up in 2006 in Belfast by award-winning journalists and TV producers Trevor Birney and Ruth O'Reilly.

Specialising in current affairs and hard-edged factual output, the company now has a full-time staff of ten and has produced films for the BBC, RTÉ, Channel 4 and Sky as well as on-line news and other digital content. It was acquired by Ten Alps in early 2009.

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