Red Arrow Acquires Majority Stake in Karga Seven Pictures

Kelly McPherson, Emre Sahin and Sarah Wetherbee - COURTESY OF KARGA SEVEN PICTURES

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Ed Meza (http://variety.com/author/ed-meza/) @edmezavar - November 10, 2015 | 11:00PM PT

Berlin - Red Arrow Entertainment Group has acquired Los Angeles-based Karga Seven Pictures, marking the latest step in the Munich-based company’s ongoing expansion in the U.S. production market. 

Founded in 2008 by Sarah Wetherbee, Emre Sahin and Kelly McPherson, Karga Seven develops and produces factual entertainment, including non-scripted and scripted programs for a wide selection of U.S. cable channels, as well as feature films. The company has produced more than 300 hours of programming, including “Booze Traveler” for Travel Channel, “How Booze Built America” for Discovery Channel, “Futurescape” for Science Channel, “Cry Wolfe” for Discovery ID and “Hunting Hitler” for History Channel. Also active in Turkey, Karga has an office in Istanbul.

Wetherbee, Sahin and McPherson will continue to oversee Karga, which will now have worldwide distribution through Red Arrow’s sales arm, Red Arrow Intl.

The acquisition strengthens Red Arrow’s foothold in the U.S. while also beefing up its factual programming slate and global distribution business. 

Speaking to Variety, Red Arrow CEO Jan Frouman said growing global demand for factual entertainment was evident and he expected an “extremely close, well-coordinated and collaborative relationship between Karga and Red Arrow Intl.” to deliver “more high-quality and coveted factual programming that we think can travel globally.” 

Frouman stressed that Karga was particularly interesting for Red Arrow because it produces “a lot of programming which is subject driven, topic driven, and not necessarily beholden to a single face or some character who may or may not translate into other territories. 

”Wetherbee added that while Karga “always had an eye towards international, now we have a direct pipeline.” Indeed, the company will be able to take advantage of Red Arrow’s international reach by working together at the development stage to determine other potential markets for specific productions, Wetherbee said. “Red Arrow’s track record speaks for itself. Their global reach will play a key role in us expanding our scripted and unscripted footprint across various platforms.” 

With its experience in the Turkish market, Karga also sees opportunities in Germany, which boasts the largest Turkish population outside of Turkey. Karga’s second feature film, the comedy “Takim,” directed by Sahin, hit Turkish theaters last month and will next be released in Germany. 

Red Arrow has stakes in 12 TV production companies spanning six countries, including U.S. firms Half Yard Productions, Nerd TV, Kinetic Content, Fabrik Entertainment and Left/Right Productions. Recent productions from its U.S. companies include Amazon’s “Bosch”; Bravo’s “Odd Mom Out”; A&E and FYI’s “Married at First Sight”; and Animal Planet’s “The Last Alaskans.”

The companies declined to provide financial details of the deal.

PILGRIM STUDIOS, A LEADING PRODUCER AND SUPPLIER OF UNSCRIPTED PROGRAMMING, TO JOIN THE LIONSGATE FAMILY

Nov. 12, 2015, 1 p.m.

Transaction Complements Lionsgate's Scripted Production Operations With Market Leader in Unscripted Content,

Underscores Continuing Growth & Diversification of Lionsgate's Television Pipeline

SANTA MONICA and NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Nov. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), a premier next generation global content leader, and Pilgrim Studios, one of the world's leading producers of unscripted programming, today announced a transaction under which Lionsgate will make a strategic investment in Pilgrim Studios. The deal marks another key alliance for Lionsgate as it continues to grow and diversify its television operations.

Pilgrim's programming slate encompasses 47 unscripted and scripted series spanning 27 networks, including reality hits such as: Ghost Hunters (SyFy), the #1 paranormal franchise on television; Welcome to Sweetie Pie's (OWN), a docudrama about a soul food matriarch; Fast N' Loud (Discovery); Wicked Tuna (National Geographic) and The Ultimate Fighter (FOX Sports 1), the flagship reality show of mixed martial arts fighting. Pilgrim will continue to operate independently with full creative autonomy under its current management team headed by founder and Chief Executive Officer Craig Piligian.

The transaction gives the two companies a combined roster of nearly 80 television series across 40 networks and builds Lionsgate's position in unscripted programming, complementing its stature as a leading supplier of premium scripted content to broadcast, cable and digital networks. The deal also reflects Lionsgate's commitment to continue deepening its content pipelines through a combination of organic growth and strategic transactions.

"We're delighted to be in business with Craig Piligian and his team, who have achieved remarkable success building Pilgrim into a global leader in unscripted content with a valuable portfolio of long-running returning series and reality brands," said Lionsgate Chief Executive Officer Jon Feltheimer. "This transaction scales and diversifies our television business by aligning Pilgrim, the market leader in nonfiction programming, with our robust scripted production operations as well as our premier syndication business operating under the Debmar-Mercury banner."

"We're thrilled to become part of the Lionsgate family and align ourselves with Jon Feltheimer, Kevin Beggs and the rest of an incredible team that has built a world-class organization," said Piligian. "This deal creates tremendous synergies between our companies, including the benefits of our respective relationships in the industry and the strength of Lionsgate's worldwide distribution infrastructure; we're very excited to work together to accelerate the next phase of our growth."

"Pilgrim's brand is synonymous with highly original, top quality content, and we're excited to welcome Craig and his team to the Lionsgate family," said Lionsgate Television Group Chairman Kevin Beggs. "The alliance of our television assets accelerates our growth into an unscripted content business with tremendous upside and creates a whole that is even greater than the sum of its parts."

Lionsgate has recently expanded its footprint in unscripted programming with a growing roster of producers and a programming slate that includes Monica The Medium, recently renewed for a second season on ABC Family, the horror-themed game show Hellevator, which debuted last month on GSN, and the Freddie Wong/RocketJump series for Hulu.

Founded by Piligian in 1997, Los Angeles-based Pilgrim Studios has grown into a global force in reality programming with a world-class slate of unscripted brands and franchises. Its scripted content business includes the series Recovery Road for ABC Family and Lifetime movies Amanda Knox: Murder onTrial in Italy, Abducted: The Carlina White Story and Stalkers. Last month, Pilgrim launched its digital initiative, 1620 Media, which debuted with six original series across a range of styles and genres, both scripted and unscripted.

About Pilgrim Studios

Craig Piligian's Pilgrim Studios produces a wide variety of unscripted and scripted programming for television, including hit series David Tutera's CELEBrations for WE tv; Bring It! and spin-off Step It Up! for Lifetime; Fast N' Loud, Misfit Garage, and Street Outlaws for Discovery; Ghost Hunters for Syfy; The Ultimate Fighter for FOX Sports 1; Welcome to Sweetie Pie's and Raising Whitley for OWN; Wicked Tuna and Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks for National Geographic Channel; Somebody's Gotta Do It with Mike Rowe for CNN; My Big Fat Fabulous Life for TLC; and Missing in Alaska for History. Pilgrim also produces the new FYI talk show series Kocktails with Khloe, hosted by Khloe Kardashian. In the scripted realm, Pilgrim is completing production on the new series Recovery Road for ABC Family. The company's original movies for Lifetime include Amanda Knox: Murder On Trial In Italy; Abducted: The Carlina White Story, which earned a 2012 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing In A Motion Picture; and the crime thriller Stalkers.

About Lionsgate

Lionsgate is a premier next generation global content leader with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, digital distribution, new channel platforms, video games and international distribution and sales. With Pilgrim Studios joining the Lionsgate family, the Company will now have nearly 80 television shows on 40 different networks spanning its primetime production, distribution and syndication businesses. These include the critically-acclaimed hit series Orange is the New Black, the multiple Emmy Award-winning drama Mad Men, the hit broadcast network series Nashville, the syndication success The Wendy Williams Show, the acclaimed drama Manhattan and the breakout series The Royals.

Its feature film business has been fueled by such successes as the blockbuster first three installments of The Hunger Games franchise, the first two installments of the Divergent franchise, Sicario, The Age of Adaline, CBS/Lionsgate's The DUFF, John Wick, Now You See Me, Roadside Attractions' Love & Mercy and Mr. Holmes, Lionsgate/Codeblack Films' Addicted and Pantelion Films' Instructions Not Included, the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S.

Lionsgate's home entertainment business is an industry leader in box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rates. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 16,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world. www.lionsgate.com

BANIJAY GROUP BUYS CONTROLLING SHARE OF AWARD-WINNING U.S.-BASED PRODUCTION COMPANY STEPHEN DAVID ENTERTAINMENT

Producers of the Emmy® Winning The Men Who Built America Acquisition Boosts Banijay Group's Library of Original Content and Expands Scripted Entertainment Footprint in the U.S.

Paris, 8 January – Continuing its growth strategy in the English speaking content market, Marco Bassetti, CEO of the Banijay Group, a leading independent content creator, producer and distributor of globally recognized television series and multimedia entertainment announced that it has signed a deal with award-winning U.S.-based production company Stephen David Entertainment (SDE). The agreement sees Banijay Group take a controlling interest in this highly successful production company to enrich Banijay’s catalogue with a library of ready-made original series and to expand into producing new original series and larger-scale scripted entertainment in the U.S. for global exploitation across the Banijay infrastructure. Stephen David, founder and president of SDE, will report to David Goldberg, Banijay Group President and Banijay Studios North America CEO. SDE will be the latest acquisition of the Banijay Group in the US after the very successful Bunim-Murray Productions, managed by Jon Murray, and the newly launched Banijay Studios North America.

SDE produces unique, premium non-scripted content and scripted documentary series including Emmy® nominated docudrama mini-series The World Wars (History); Emmy® winning event mini-series The Men Who Built America (History) and The West (Discovery Channel); anthology mini-series American Genius (National Geographic Channel) and true crime series Redrum.  SDE’s most recent production, the brand new three-part event mini-series Sons of Liberty, premieres in the U.S. on 25th January 2015 on History.  SDE is an end-to-end television production and development company based out of New York City, with its own in-house post-production facility. 

Marco Bassetti, Banijay Group CEO, commented, “This new deal underlines our policy to expand our footprint in the English-speaking market, bringing added value to our business as a whole. I have huge respect for Stephen and very much admire the high quality and entertaining programs he produces.  With SDE on board, our presence in the U.S. market becomes even stronger and more diverse.”   

David Goldberg, added, “This move complements our existing business and strengthens Banijay’s ability to break new creative ground in North America.  We believe there is a great deal of opportunity for growth of the non-scripted and scripted documentary genres.  We will also look to SDE to contribute to the development of the Banijay scripted activity that is a main objective of our US strategy.  Stephen is an incredibly gifted talent and his strong track record as an award-winning content creator and producer makes SDE a great fit for the business we’re building in North America.  We look forward to working with Stephen and his team.”

Stephen David added, “This is a very exciting start to the New Year and I am delighted to see SDE join the Banijay Group family.  We share mutual goals and ambitions. First and foremost, the desire to create top quality programming that entertains and has strong local and international appeal.”

Stephen David Entertainment was represented in the transaction by Ron Milkes and Bryan Bowles of Bryor Media Partners.

LEGENDARY ENTERTAINMENT ACQUIRES ASYLUM ENTERTAINMENT

Acquisition Underscores Legendary’s Mandate to Build a Multi-Platform and Diverse Television and Digital Business

Legendary Entertainment announced today that it has acquired 100 percent of Asylum Entertainment, a leading television production company, known for creating and producing popular scripted, non-scripted and sports documentary programming. Through the deal, Asylum joins Legendary Television & Digital Media, the division of Legendary Entertainment charged with producing programming across multiple platforms on a global basis. Legendary Television remains committed to premium, Legendary branded scripted content, while Asylum provides Legendary with a broad-based and diverse production label which will expand into non-scripted, long-form, sports and other genres.

The announcement was made by Bruce Rosenblum, President of Legendary Television and Digital Media, alongside Asylum Entertainment’s founders, Steve Michaels, President and Chief Executive Officer and Jonathan Koch, President and Chief Creative Officer. Michaels and Koch will continue to operate Asylum as an independent company, maintaining its unique brand and corporate culture, and now report into Rosenblum.

“This is an exciting and significant acquisition for Legendary which confirms our commitment to building a global multi-dimensional television business. Asylum’s terrific track-record, relationships and current television content gives Legendary a base to expand and quickly diversify our television business,” said Rosenblum. “On a personal level, I am thrilled to be working with Steve and Jonathan, two executives who have thrived in an entrepreneurial environment, and I am confident that they will be ideal partners to our team.”

Founded in 2003, Asylum is known for producing a broad range of premium video programming primarily for cable television that spans from acclaimed documentaries including ESPN’s critically lauded “30 for 30” series and the “Beyond the Glory” series for Fox Sports; to widely popular cable reality shows such as “Beverly Hills Pawn” and Emmy®- winning dramatic mini-series like “The Kennedys.”

“This is an incredible deal that allows Asylum to scale our existing business beyond what we could have imagined,” Michaels and Koch said. “In terms of our programming philosophies and the audiences we’re trying to build and serve, Legendary is a perfect match. And, of course, we have deep regard for all that Thomas Tull has accomplished in the media business, and we’re very excited to be working with him and Legendary.”

Asylum is currently in production on a highly anticipated feature documentary, Happy Valley, focusing on the sexual abuse scandal that recently rocked Penn State University and its football program.

About Asylum Entertainment

Asylum Entertainment’s most notable productions include the epic 8-part mini-series “The Kennedys” for which they received 10 Emmy® nominations and won four. Additionally, Asylum’s scripted division was recently nominated for four Emmy Awards on the television film, “Ring of Fire” starring Jewel. Asylum’s lifeblood is unscripted television. Their notable unscripted projects include the 10-time Emmy nominated “Beyond The Glory,” ESPN’s “30 for 30,” “The Locator,” “Addicted,” “American Gangster,” “Beverly Hills Pawn” and many more.

Additionally, Asylum Entertainment is eagerly anticipating the spring 2014 release of its’ first theatrical feature film “Small Time,” written and directed by “24” co-creator, Joel Surnow. Currently, Asylum Entertainment is in production on the much anticipated feature documentary Happy Valley, which focuses on the gripping scandal that has rocked Penn State University. To learn more visit: www.asylument.com.

About Legendary Entertainment

Legendary Entertainment is a leading media company with film (Legendary Pictures), television and digital (Legendary Television and Digital Media) and comics (Legendary Comics) divisions dedicated to owning, producing and delivering content to mainstream audiences with a targeted focus on the powerful fandom demographic. Through complete or joint ownership, Legendary has built a library of marquee media properties and has established itself as a trusted brand which consistently delivers high-quality, commercial entertainment including some of the world’s most popular intellectual property. In aggregate,

Legendary Pictures-associated productions have realized grosses of more than $8 billion worldwide at the box office. To learn more visit: www.legendary.com