Banijay Group has acquired non-scripted indie 7Wonder.
The deal marks the first UK non-scripted acquisition for the super-indie following a number of scripted additions over the last year.
7Wonder founders Alexandra Fraser, Liza Abbott, and Simon Ellse will continue to run the business as Chief Creative, CEO and CFO respectively. The deal that sees over 160 hours of 7Wonder programming added to Banijay UK’s non-scripted slate.
Since its creation in 2014, 7Wonder has won various returnable commissions including BBC Two’s Back to the Land with Kate Humble, Sky Arts series Tate Britain’s Great British Walks (6×60’), CBeebies pre-school reality series Do You Know? ; and the UK adaptation of My Kitchen Rules for Channel 4.
Upcoming for the indie is Channel 4 series Seven Year Switch (6×60’) airing in March, and BBC Two documentary Heart Transplant (w/t), a topical 90 minute special filmed at the Institute of Transplantation in Newcastle set to air this Spring.
7Wonder will work collaboratively with fellow Banijay UK award-winning prod co’s RDF and IWC Media, and “will explore opportunities for co-productions in the UK and around the wider global Banijay Group.” 7Wonder’s previous partnership with Seven Network Australia has concluded and Banijay Rights will distribute 7Wonder content going forward.
Alexandra Fraser, Chief Creative, 7Wonder said: “We are absolutely delighted to be joining Banijay. With RDF and IWC, Banijay already enjoys a strong reputation for delivering high quality factual programming in the UK which we hope to build on, but we’re tremendously excited, too, by the international opportunities that will now open up to us."
Peter Langenberg, COO Banijay Group said: “We are thrilled that 7Wonder are to become the first non-scripted acquisition for Banijay UK. Alex and the 7Wonder team have an excellent track record of creating and executing successful returnable formats and authentic factual programming; they will be the perfect complement to our existing non-scripted labels RDF and IWC, and we could not have hoped to have found a better addition to the Banijay family.”
Jon Creamer
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