Fox unscripted chief Alison Wallach and BiggerStage boss Pat Kiely reveal the opportunities attached to production centre
Irish production services company BiggerStage has launched a global production hub at Limerick’s Troy Studios as well as creating a development scheme for formats.
The scheme, called the Format Factory, will act as an incubator for developing and piloting unscripted IP, allowing producers to test and scale new ideas.
The scheme is designed to incentivise Irish creatives to generate formats, but BiggerStage chief executive Pat Kiely indicated it could be used by UK businesses too.
“If we believe in a format, we’ll invest in it by providing facilities, people, skills and stage space, on the basis that should that pilot get picked up, we’ve got the rights for the full show, to be produced here,” he said.
“There’s no reason why Ireland couldn’t be the best market in the world to test TV formats.”
The production hub at Troy Studios officially opened yesterday but it has already hosted several large-scale productions this year, including 99 To Beat with Ken Jeong and Erin Andrews, The Floor with Rob Lowe, and Name That Tune with Jane Krakowski for the Fox Network in the US.
ITV Studios’ version of Name That Tune, hosted by Alison Hammond for ITV1, will also film there soon.
Allison Wallach, head of unscripted entertainment at Fox Entertainment Studios, which took a minority stake in BiggerStage two years ago, told Broadcast the global production hub stemmed out of “necessity”.
“We got to a place where Fox Network was sending so much production over to Ireland that it became about stage availability and then Pat and the team discovered this opportunity,” she said. “That’s when it became clear that we can actually take over a studio that has multiple stages and be able to do multiple productions all at once.”
Next Level Chef, which is co-produced by Fox Alternative Entertainment and Studio Ramsay Global, is currently filmed in Ashford Studios in Wicklow, but will eventually move to the hub in Troy Studios, she said, adding that future Fox projects will be based out of the Limerick facility.
This year, Ireland became the first European country to introduce an unscripted tax credit, and Wallach acknowledged the move opens further opportunities for US-based producers.
US president Donald Trump has repeatedly called for American productions to be made at home, but Wallach highlighted several Fox unscripted series that are made in the US, such as Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service and dating format Marriage Market.
She was also clear that appeal of Irish production is not solely about cost-effectiveness.
“We don’t really judge [where to film] based on where it’s cheaper, as much as where it makes the most sense creatively,” she said. “Then it’s about what’s the most economical way to execute it, and nine times out of 10, if it’s studio-based in-game it’s going to be here.”
Ultimately, she said, the most attractive element of filming in Ireland is the level of “top notch” skilled teams.
BiggerStage’s Kiely added that the hub is designed to sustain jobs locally, as well as help grow the TV workforce in Ireland. He said Irish educational institutions are increasingly offering more courses centred on working in TV and film.
The production hub, he said, not only takes advantage of the introduction of the unscripted tax credit, but Ireland’s unique position as the only official English-speaking country in the EU, as well as the only EU member with freedom of movement with the UK.
“We use an awful lot of UK talent to supplement the Irish talent and that makes us increasingly attractive to bring these productions in,” he added.
Earlier at the launch event, Wallach appeared on a panel with BiggerStage’s chief creative director Sean O’Riordan and ITVS’ managing director global creative and production support Mike Beale.
Wallach argued that hubs are an economically affordable way for other countries to produce in Ireland and that she looks for ideas that are “hub-able”.
Beale added that he believes centralising productions such as Name That Tune at hubs is “the future”.
He continued: “Television is getting harder: everybody’s more risk adverse and the world is changing as we speak, so we need to do things differently and this is definitely one way to do it.”
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