DCD Establishes New Irish Production Company

23 Apr 2009 07:00

Embargoed: 0700hrs, 23 April 2009

DCD Media plc

("DCD" or the "Company")

DCD Establishes New Irish Production Company

DCD Media, the independent TV production and distribution group, has established a wholly owned Irish production company, through its West Park Pictures subsidiary, operating as West Park West. 

The Dublin-based business has been created in order to build on DCD's existing relationship with Irish commissioners, such as RTE, the national broadcaster, and the Irish Film Board, specifically in the documentary and factual programming genres. The Company is seeking to take advantage of lucrative production opportunities as well as the fertile television funding environment that Ireland has to offer. 

DCD has contracted the services of Dublin-based, and internationally renowned, producer James Mitchell as the new venture's Executive Producer, working alongside André Singer, CEO and Creative Director of DCD-owned West  Park Pictures. The Company is delighted to announce West Park West's first three commissions, of in excess of €1m combined value, and each already sold to RTE for broadcast:

The Invincibles - a 90-minute documentary special about the 1974 Lion's Rugby tour, breaching the sports boycott of apartheid South Africa (for RTE and Sky Sports).

Horses - a 90-minute feature documentary inspired by Gulliver's journey to the Land of Horses - Irish racehorses (theatrical release for the Irish Film Board and television for BBC Storyville and RTE).

The Boys of St Columb - a one-hour co-production with Maccana Teoranta, following the lives of several great Irish figures (including Nobel Laureates Seamus Heaney and John Hume) who have helped transform modern Ireland and who all attended the same small school in Derry in the 1950s (for RTE and BBC Northern Ireland). 

David Green, Chief Creative Officer and Acting CEO of DCD said:

"West Park West is a further step in DCD's domestic and international expansion strategy. There is a great deal of business to be won in Ireland, which offers a productive environment for quality programme makers. Establishing a hub in Dublin is a strategic, but non cash intensive, move to capture a greater share of this market."

Enquiries:

David Green

Chief Creative Officer and Acting CEO DCD Media plc

Tel. 020 7297 8000

Tom Price or Jeremy Ellis

Evolution Securities

Tel. 020 7071 4300

Notes to Editors:

About DCD Media plc 

DCD Media plc is one of the UK's 'super-indies', a large group of production and distribution companies specialising in factual, entertainment, drama, music and arts programming for TV, DVD and new media markets. DCD Media comprises a number of high profile content producers - Box TV, a drama specialist; music and staged event specialist Done and Dusted; factual and lifestyle producer Prospect Pictures; primetime factual entertainment, reality, formats and documentaries producer September Films; documentary specialist West Park Pictures, recently established Scottish production company, Matchlight, a joint venture with some of Scotland's leading programme makers and West Park West, a new Dublin-based producer and developer of documentaries and factual programming.

The group also comprises its wholly owned international distributor DCD Rights, the international video download site and DVD label Digital Classics, and publishing division DCD Publishing. For further details see www.dcdmedia.co.uk