All3Media has taken the top spot for the fifth year in a row in the Production 100, Televisual’s annual survey and ranking of the independent TV production sector.
The superindie behind Fresh Meat, Embarrassing Bodies, TOWIE, Midsomer Murders and Peep Show comprises 20 companies in the UK and abroad, and achieved UK revenues of £286m, up from £261m last year.
Elisabeth Murdoch’s Shine Group climbed from fifth to second place this year on revenues of £190.7m, while Endemol dropped one place to third with revenues of £187m.
Elsewhere, there’s been plenty of movement in the Production 100 rankings among medium to small sized indies. Many have had a very good year indeed.
Drama and comedy indies have done well, reflecting an upturn in commissioning by broadcasters in these genres. Baby Cow, for example, has almost doubled its turnover, while Sherlock producer Hartswood Films has trebled its revenues. Big Talk and Red have also posted solid gains on the year. Higher up the list, NBC Universal (owner of Downton Abbey producer Carnival Films), Hat Trick, Left Bank and Impossible have also seen impressive rises in turnover.
My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding producer Firecracker is clearly riding a wave with revenues up from £8.9m to £13.4m year on year. Other factual indies to do well include Raw TV, Jamie Oliver’s indie Fresh One, Love Productions, Betty, Keo Films, Blast Films and Minnow Films.
Fallers this year include the Ten Alps group, where turnover has halved to £9.5m, and Endemol where turnover has fallen by over £50m to £187m. Absent from 2012’s list is last year’s fourth biggest company Hit Entertainment, which was swallowed by US toy firm Mattel last October.
The highest new entrant this year is Call The Midwife producer Neal Street Productions. Fellow drama producers Warp Films and Ruby Films, who have diversified into TV from film production, are also new entrants. 24 Hours in A&E producer The Garden makes its first entry this year at number 50, less than two years since launching. Other new names to the Production 100 this year include Wide-Eyed Entertainment, Bigger Pictures, Rise, ClearStory and Airborne.
For the second year in a row, the indie business seems to be in distinctly better shape than the wider economy. Many of the indies surveyed say that business is good, and they expect it to continue being so next year. Although programme budgets remain under pressure and margins are being squeezed, producers say that they are winning commissions from a wider range of broadcasters both in the UK and abroad.
Since the list below was published, Sony has acquired Left Bank and ITV Studios has acquired So Television.
See Televisual’s September issue for the full Production 100 report. Note: the individual brands of superindies are listed in brackets.
The top 100 TV indies (ranked on turnover):
1 All3Media (inc Bentley, Company, Lime, Lion, Maverick, North One, Objective, One Potato, Two Potato, Optomen, Studio Lambert)
2 Shine Group (inc Kudos, Princess, Dragonfly, Shine TV)
3 Endemol UK (inc Remarkable, Initial, Tiger Aspect, Zepportron, Darlow Smithson, Tigress)
4 Zodiak UK (inc RDF, Bwark, IWC, Bullseye, Lucky Day, Comedy Unit, Touchpaper, Presentable, The Foundation, Red House, Mast Media)
5 IMG Sports Media
6 FremantleMedia UK (inc Thames, Boundless, Retort, Talkback, Newman Street)
7 Shed Media (inc Shed Productions, Wall to Wall, Ricochet, Twenty Twenty, Yalli, Renegade, Watershed)
8 Tinopolis (inc Mentorn, Daybreak, Pioneer, Sunset+Vine)
9 Avalon (inc Avalon TV, Liberty Bell, Tinderbox, Topical, Flame)
10 NBC Universal (inc Carnival Film & TV, Monkey)
11 Left Bank
12 Twofour
13 Hat Trick
14 DCD Media (inc Prospect, September, Rize USA (jv), Matchlight (jv)
15 Boom (inc Oxford Scientific, Boomerang, Indus)
16 Argonon (inc Leopard Films, Remedy)
17 Impossible Pictures
18 Raw TV
19 Sony (inc Silver River, Victory, Gogglebox)
20 Nutopia
21 Neal Street
22 Pulse Films
23 Aardman
24 Rondo
25 Firecracker
26 Fresh One
27 Red
28= Big Talk
28= Parthenon
30 Zig Zag
31 So Television
32 Mammoth Screen
33 Input Media
34 CPL
35 Baby Cow
36 Atlantic
37 Love Productions
38 Off the Fence
39 Ten Alps (inc Blakeway, Films of Record, Brook Lapping)
40 Hartswood
41 Betty
42 Spun Gold
43 Ruby Films
44 Somethin’ Else
45 Keo Films
46 Wag TV
47 Windfall
48 Icon
49 Oxford Film & TV
50 The Garden
51 Blast Films
53 Electric Sky
54 Outline
55= Blink
55=touch/can
56 True North
57 Splash
58= Blue Zoo
58= Tern TV
60 DLT
61 Wide Eyed
62 Telesgop
63 Green Inc
64 Sixteen South
65 Thumbs Up
66 Kindle
67 Rival
68 3DD
69 Magnum Media
70 Walsh Bros.
71 Pacific
72 Reef
73 Quicksilver
74 Pilot
75 Wild Pictures
76 Matchlight
77 Attaboy
78=First Look
78= Minnow
80= Testimony
80= True Vision
82 Airborne
83 Illuminations
84 Warp
85 CTVC Ltd
86= Back2Back
86= Fulcrum
88 Bigger pictures
89 HCA Entertainment
90 Lambent
91 Seventh Art
92 Modern TV
93 Hardcash
94 Coolabi
95 Skyworks
96 Rise
97 Red Planet
98 ClearStory Ltd
99 Lupus
100 Bungalow Town
Tim Dams
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