All3Media

Production Company

By Melissa Grego -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/7/2011 12:01:00 AM

The shows Skins, Undercover Boss, Cash Cab, Shameless, House of Anubis and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? may seem far afield from each other in the TV landscape. But they all hail from the same place: quickly growing, London-based All- 3Media, the U.K.’s largest independent TV production group.

The production and distribution company is what CEO Steve Morrison calls a “federation” of some 20 TV, film and new media companies from the U.K., Germany, The Netherlands, Australia and the U.S. The company is ramping up its Stateside presence and profile. It brought former CBS exec Nancy Tellem on late last year as the first U.S.-based board member. And Morrison told B&C that he aims to have a U.S. outpost, All3America, established “in the course of this year.”

A former Granada honcho, Morrison formed All3Media in 2004 with fellow U.K. TV vets David Liddiment, Jules Burns and John Pfeil. They have grown All3 by acquiring smaller companies. All3’s majority shareholder is private equity group Permira. There has been speculation that Permira may try to sell its stake, with top U.S. or U.K. media firms likely bidders.

The All3Media model leaves acquired producers to run autonomously while tapping the larger company’s resources to set up shop in promising territories and distribute their programs and formats around the world. All3Media companies have gone from making half a million dollars a year to $5 million–$10 million, Morrison says. He says the worldwide setup has proven to be “best suited to creative businessess.”