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Shed's expansion policy paying off
The expansion policy of the production company behind television shows Rock Rivals and Waterloo Road appeared to be bearing fruit.
Shed Media said the Wall to Wall production house, which it bought for 20.4m in December, had been commissioned by the BBC for two new series of the genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?
Network giant NBC has also bought US rights to the show, which has seen the likes of Jeremy Paxman and Sir Matthew Pinsent trace their family roots.
The BBC has also ordered a new series of Wall to Wall's veteran detective show New Tricks starring Dennis Waterman and Amanda Redman.
Unveiling full year results yesterday, Shed said its other other major buy last year, independent production house Twenty Twenty for 18m, had also been commissioned for a US pilot of its successful Brat Camp show.
The units helped boost Shed Media's underlying pre-tax profits for the newly-extended 16-month period to December 31 to 10m. On a pro-rata basis, this was marginally down from the 7.7m in the year to August 2006.
Revenues were slightly ahead, at 63.1m for the 16-month period compared to 43.5m for the previous year.
Shed has been trying to rebuild its business since 2006 when its hit shows Footballers' Wives and prison drama Bad Girls were dropped by ITV.
Chief executive Eileen Gallagher said with just four months gone the group already had 227 hours of programming commissioned – 80 per cent of this year's target hours and nearly two-thirds of the revenue target. Last year a total of 209 hours of programming were produced. One of Shed's big commission wins this year is peak time BBC1 drama series Hope Springs, the filming of which is due to start this summer. It is about four female ex-prisoners who find themselves on the run in Scotland after stealing 5m from one of the character's husbands.
And US network ABC has requested another series of group company Ricochet's Supernanny USA.
A new series of Waterloo Road is also being made by Shed, but there was no word on the future of ITV talent show drama Rock Rivals, starring ex-Eastender Michelle Collins, which critics said underperformed in its key 9pm slot earlier this year.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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