Ascent Media has acquired London Playout Centre from its parent company, RTL.
Ascent Media has acquired London Playout Centre from its parent company, RTL. Following the deal, LPC will now operate as part of Ascent Media's network services division and the LPC brand will no longer exist. Ascent Media did not say how much the deal is worth.

The acquisition of LPC will bring Ascent Media's network services operations in Europe, in line with those in the US and Asia. "One of the core capabilities for us is the Network Services division which operates around the world," said Ascent chief executive Ken Williams. "When LPC came on to the market we saw an opportunity to really dramatically augment our European capabilities."

Under the deal, Ascent Media will acquire 100 per cent of LPC. The company will be fully integrated into Ascent Media Network Services located in Charlotte Street and Camden. There are plans to eventually integrate Ascent media's Charlotte Street facility into LPC making it one integrated operation. "We intend to run this as a single line of business," Williams said.

LPC provides a broad range of services for major commercial TV channels, including Five, Flextech, and Discovery. The facilities at its Stephen Street site include 18 playout, four audio, 12 on-line and 18 off-line suites as well as 12 graphic stations, eight QC rooms and six studios spread over 77,000 square feet. It has a turnover of over £25.5 million and employs over 280 staff.

"We don't anticipate any [redundancies] in the operational areas, but we will do a review of some of the HR and finance type areas, which is a process we're starting now," said Scott Davis president of Network Services.

Williams said that whilst the acquisition was driven by financial reasons, it was also a way to offer the end-to-end services that clients are increasingly asking for. "We're trying to present a uniform set of capabilities," he added.

Commenting on the future of LPC's management, Williams said: "Part of what we were buying with LPC was the employee base including management. We are discussing how they can align their organisation with Network Services in the UK and we're hoping we can attract some of them to stay with us."