Discovery and Liberty Global have agreed a £550m-plus deal to acquire super-indie All3Media.
The US factual broadcaster and the international cable operator have teamed up to buy the company from private equity firm Permira, Broadcast understands.
News of Discovery’s interest in All3Media came after the firm pulled out a deal to acquire Channel 5, which was sold last week to Viacom.
All3M had been in a period of exclusive talks with rival producer Fremantle Media, but the Discovery and Liberty Global swooped in they came to an end last month.
Discovery Communications chief executive David Zaslav said on an earning calls yesterday that it was still keen to acquire production companies.
“Given the strong organic growth opportunity across our asset base, we are only focused on assets that will help us sustain that profile over the long term, primarily complementary dual revenue stream channels that can provide more scale, like Eurosport and SBS, or assets that offer valuable IP or creative talent in must-have programming categories, like our recent acquisition of the award-winning production company, Raw,” he said.
All3Media operates indies including Lion TV, Objective Productions, Lime Pictures, Company Pictures, Maverick, Studio Lambert, North One Television, Bentley Productions and Optomen.
Formal comment from both companies is expected shortly.
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