In the hours after the UK’s first TV election debate this month, the two main political parties turned to the same device to hero their leaders. The Conservative Party filmed two cabinet members watching the debate, sipping wine, and lauding their boss Rishi Sunak. Labour put the focus on voters, all of whom sat on their sofas heralding Keir Starmer.
The short social videos were unmistakably inspired by Gogglebox, the iconic British television show from the mind of Undercover Boss creator Stephen Lambert. Labour removed any doubt by titling its video Ballotbox. That Gogglebox was co-opted for propaganda served as a reminder of the power of TV, and of All3Media, the super producer that ultimately owns the format.
All3Media was officially acquired last month for £1.15B ($1.46B) by RedBird IMI, the Abu Dhabi-backed investment vehicle run by former CNN chief Jeff Zucker. The average Gogglebox viewer is unlikely to be aware of the deal, but they may know that RedBird IMI was thwarted in its audacious effort to buy The Daily Telegraph.
The deals played out in bizarre parallel realities. On the one hand, The Telegraph acquisition prompted headlines on BBC News, handwringing parliamentary debates, and a nuclear decision by the UK government to stop the conservative newspaper from falling into foreign hands. By contrast, All3Media’s sale was sanctioned without so much as a flicker of disapproval from UK authorities.
“The world was so focused on our bids for The Telegraph and The Spectator that they weren’t paying attention to All3Media,” Zucker tells Deadline in a telephone interview.
‘Gogglebox’
All3Media is not in the business of influencing policy and votes, but one could argue that it is as culturally significant as The Telegraph — and certainly more profitable. This, after all, is the company that bagged Oscars for 1917, made a global star of Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and has both sides of the Atlantic obsessing over The Traitors’ game of wink murder in a Highland castle.
But All3Media has been something of a sleeping giant in recent years. The company has grown organically under the leadership of respected CEO Jane Turton, but it has not been the hard-charging acquisitions force it once was, with its last major deal approaching a four-year anniversary. This looks about to change.
Deadline has spoken to the leaders of RedBird IMI and All3Media, as well as people close to both businesses and M&A experts, to reveal how the company is plotting a course back to the buyers’ table, with plans to become the face of RedBird IMI’s entertainment industry spending spree. This is the inside story of All3Media’s sale and how a storied British producer will be shaken from its slumber.
All3Media: A TV Unicorn
All3Media launched in 2003 and quickly pioneered what its founders describe as a “federal model” of production ownership. The company prides itself on acquiring highly entrepreneurial producers and letting them get on with running their business — even the back-office stuff that bores most creatives. Variations on this structure are so commonplace now that it’s no longer novel, but All3Media was among the first and it became an attractive home to the likes of Sam Mendes, Lambert, and Tinder Swindler producer Joely Fether.
The federal model has been endorsed during three separate sales. Three years after its inception in 2006, All3Media was acquired by Permira for £320M. In 2014, the private equity house flipped its asset to Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and Liberty Global for £550M. Now, All3Media is worth more than double this to RedBird IMI. If it were a tech company, it would be hailed as a unicorn.
In March 2023, WBD and Liberty Global informed Turton that they wanted to sell. Soon after, they were in deal talks with ITV Studios, maker of Fool Me Once and Love Island. ITV told its shareholders last June that it was “actively exploring” the acquisition, sparking an almost farcical will-they-won’t-they narrative that dragged on for months.
Behind the scenes, several sources say conversations between ITV and All3Media were forensic and there was an acknowledgment on both sides that it was a good fit. “We got deep into the weeds,” says a person familiar with the process. Ultimately, the ITV deal fell apart over WBD’s and Liberty Global’s price. “At the pointy end of it, these things become much more about value,” the source adds. ITV declined to comment.
ITV backed away in July, prompting WBD and Liberty Global to effectively regroup with advisors at JP Morgan and plan a formal auction for September 2023. ITV kept a watching brief, while a lengthy field of suitors, ranging from Goldman Sachs to Peter Chernin’s North Road, entered the bidding room. It ultimately came down to two serious contenders: RedBird IMI and Banijay, the European production giant behind Big Brother and Survivor.
There are dueling narratives around why RedBird IMI ultimately emerged victorious just before Christmas. A person close to the investment company says its bid was lower than Banijay’s and the super producer was struggling to piece together financing. This was emphatically denied by a Banijay insider, who says financing was not an issue and the company’s offer was around £287M lower than RedBird IMI. Banijay declined to comment.
Jeff Zucker
Either way, Zucker argues that he got a “fair price” and everyone walked away from the deal happy. Described as a “new kid on the block,” RedBird IMI was not part of the early suitor speculation, so it was a surprise to some when it became the favorite to acquire All3Media. Zucker says the Call The Midwife producer was a no-brainer: “Assets of that size and caliber don’t become available very often.”
RedBird IMI and Banijay had different visions for All3Media. Senior Banijay sources think at least £230M of cost could have been stripped out of All3Media by smashing together similar labels and consolidating back-office services. It would likely have raised questions about Turton’s future as CEO given that she is widely considered to be a peer of Banijay boss Marco Bassetti.
On the other hand, Zucker wants All3Media to retain its federal DNA and RedBird IMI has little in the way of overlapping assets. In his words, he wants to “water the seeds” of growth rather than replanting the All3Media meadow. There is a view among those close to All3Media that this is the preferable outcome. In a phone call with Deadline, Turton says conversations about retaining the “All3 ethos” were “very reassuring.”
Having joined the business in 2008, Turton has captained All3Media to record earnings without writing any big checks in recent years. The company broke the £1B revenue barrier for the first time in 2022, while EBITDA (its preferred measure of profit) stood at £100M. All3Media is confident records were broken last year, with the success of series like Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge helping it weather twin U.S. strikes and a global commissioning slowdown. The company declined to comment on 2023 earnings until its accounts are published in the coming months.
Unleashing All3Media
All3Media is a mid-ranking player when it comes to its peers in Europe and competition is intensifying. Mediawan, the French producer behind Call My Agent, propelled itself into the billion-dollar revenue club after fully acquiring Germany’s Leonine Studios in April. Fremantle and Banijay have closed eye-catching deals for the likes of 007: Road to a Million producer 72 Films and Peaky Blinders owner Caryn Mandabach Productions respectively. ITV Studios laid down £103.5M for Tiny World producer Plimsoll Productions in 2022.
In contrast, All3Media’s last statement signing came in 2020, when it took control of Silverback Films, producer of Netflix natural history series Our Planet. People close to the company say WBD and Liberty Global’s recent reluctance to back acquisitions has been a source of frustration for All3Media, which has looked on ruefully as desirable targets have bobbed into view and then been tugged away by rivals. “They’ve had one hand tied behind their back,” surmises one well-placed source.
Independent observers agree. Thomas Dey, founder of ACF, which brokered the sale of 1917 producer Neal Street to All3Media, says Turton has not been “super aggressive” in recent years. WBD and Liberty Global declined to comment, but sources at the companies dispute the narrative around a lack of investment. The duo spent £250M on acquisitions, invested £420M in All3Media’s corporate development, and did not draw dividends from the business during their decade-long ownership.
Still, there is a feeling at All3Media that it has missed out on opportunities. For example, Turton is a known admirer of Hartswood Films, but Deadline understands that ITV Studios is leading the race to buy the producer of Sherlock and The Devil’s Hour. Deadline can also reveal that Turton attempted to extract what was the Shed Media Group (which includes companies like Who Do You Think You Are? indie Wall to Wall) from under the wing of WBD, but was met with resistance from David Zaslav. The companies are more closely embedded in WBD’s broadcast business than some realize, so disentangling them was not straightforward. Sources say All3Media would be open-minded about revisiting the deal, but it is not a live conversation. Some think a Shed sale is not big enough for Zaslav to care about.
‘1917’
Zucker has made it clear he plans to awaken All3Media in the M&A market. “We haven’t given them a specific war chest, but they’re aware that for the right opportunities, we’re behind them,” he says. He anticipates that All3Media will be the main vehicle through which production acquisitions are completed, but existing companies will remain distinct, including Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity and The Morning Show producer Media Res.
RedBird IMI is a joint venture between RedBird Capital, a private equity firm, and the International Media Investments fund run by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, an Emirati royal and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. Dey thinks All3Media is a “genius” play, but argues that RedBird IMI will have to spend around $2B to expand the producer beyond its UK stronghold. An executive at a rival super producer says All3Media is over-exposed to the British market and would suffer if high-volume returning series, including Gogglebox and The Only Way is Essex, faltered.
Target planning is underway and Turton is particularly keen on making inroads in the U.S., where All3Media America is responsible for shows including Discovery’s Homestead Rescue. “We are getting to know the new shareholders and presenting them with a full and long-term strategy around the inorganic piece of the business,” she says. Acquisitions must tick one of two boxes (or both): have a strong IP pipeline or be “stunning creative talent.”
Industry sources say All3Media has held informal conversations with Nutopia, producer of Disney+ series Limitless with Chris Hemsworth. Nutopia’s founder Jane Root is not currently looking for a new owner, but she is unlikely to be short of offers after sales of £39M last year. Root owns 85.7% of the company, while senior employees Carl Griffin and Helena Tait hold the remaining 14.3%.
Talent Retention
All3Media’s structure means that retaining talent is always a priority for the company. There were mischievous whispers during the sales process that Stephen Lambert’s Studio Lambert deal was up for renewal and was proving to be a stumbling block for some buyers. Sources close to All3Media dismiss the chatter as nothing more than a pernicious rumor, making clear that Lambert has a long-term commitment to the business. “They’ll always go after your star striker,” says one insider. Lambert is enjoying a purple patch, having turned The Traitors into an audience favorite for the BBC and Peacock, while at the same time scoring ratings and BAFTA glory for the Squid Game reality show.
‘Squid Game: The Challenge’
Netflix
It is not clear yet if RedBird IMI’s Abu Dhabi backers will be an issue for some production chiefs at All3Media. A former group producer, who did not wish to be named, does not think it will be a concern because All3Media is not in the news game and executives have already had dealings with the Gulf. “If a current affairs producer has pitched an investigation about Abu Dhabi, that would be awkward, but I don’t see anything in the All3Media portfolio where that is going to arise,” the producer says. “The one place you could get into trouble is if one of your drama companies comes along with a searing series about the Gulf, but I just don’t think they’re going to do that.”
Steve Morrison, the former All3Media CEO, agrees: “For all the brilliance of All3Media and its great production companies, I don’t think it plays the same role in British culture and opinion [as The Telegraph]. It’s a great company, but it’s not writing editorials and trying to change minds.”
Zucker offers All3Media producers the same assurances he was providing The Telegraph during his takeover bid for the newspaper. “All of our companies are free to pursue any stories that they think are worthwhile. I am running each of these companies, Abu Dhabi is not involved in the day-to-day running of any of our companies, so it’s not an issue,” he explains.
Turton also appears committed to All3Media alongside her key allies, including COO Sara Geater and CFO Angela McMullen. She is regularly linked with top jobs in the UK and was part of the conversation for the BBC director general role back in 2020. Turton thinks RedBird IMI will provide the business with renewed energy: “This is not an easy time to be a television producer, far from it, and so the challenge is exciting because I’m massively competitive, I like doing things well. I’m hopeful, and have every reason to believe, that these new shareholders will help us achieve that.”
Zucker is clear about his ambitions: “Success over the next three to five years is continued growth, both financially and structurally. We want to expand All3’s footprint so it’s not just seen as the UK’s largest independent production company, but one of the world’s top two or three independent production companies.”
Zucker was happy for RedBird IMI to swoop under the radar for All3Media, but he is hopeful people will notice if the company soars to new heights.