Future plc is to rebrand Barcroft Studios as Future Studios and has made two team promotions.
Future acquired Barcroft Studios in December 2019.
Al Brown, becomes Vice President of Future Studios and is responsible for overseeing internal development and commissioning and distribution. He previously oversaw Barcroft’s factual output for Channel 4’s True Stories brand as Executive Producer, reporting into Chief Creative Officer John Farrar.
Brown previously spent over a decade at Vice UK, joining in 2008. He was a member of the team responsible for launching linear pay-TV channel Viceland, online channel Vice News and was vice president of programming for Vice Studios, with responsibility for the UK division.
And Ellie Winstanley has been appointed Junior Executive Producer at Future Studios. Winstanley has been Series Producer on many of the company’s most successful series for Snapchat and Channel 4 and will have responsibility for external digital commissions on Snapchat and YouTube and Facebook output.
The production business, led by Chief Creative Officer John Farrar, has been commissioned by Channel 4 to co-produce the reboot of classic TV show GamesMaster, the Future PLC brand set to make a return to E4 and social channels later this year, in partnership with Oculus Quest 2 from Facebook.
And following the success of ‘Totally Game’, the original short form documentary series Barcroft produced in collaboration with Future’s games division, the company is in production on three new ‘Future Originals’ – an anthology gaming series, a factual series focusing on the paranormal and a new true crime strand, in partnership with Future plc brand Marie Claire.
“With several new series in production for our terrestrial, cable and digital clients as well as exciting new projects in development from across Future’s incredible portfolio of media brands including our GamesMaster reboot, we felt it’s a natural next step to rename the business Future Studios as we look ahead to the next phase of our growth” Future Studios Chief Creative Officer John Farrar.
In additional to a range of projects currently in development and production for linear broadcasters around the world, Future Studios produces over 50 short form episodes per month across its various social media channels and recently launched ‘Transformed’ and ‘Dating Different’, two original formats with episodes regularly receiving over 10 million views across social channels. The business has also become established as one of the UK’s leading producers of original content for Snapchat.
Jon Creamer
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