What links global entertainment juggernauts “Love Island” and “I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!” with drama sensations “Bodyguard,” “Snowpiercer” and “Line of Duty”? Or reality hits “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Queer Eye” and “Come Dine With Me,” with quiz phenomenon “The Chase”?
The answer: All are created, produced or distributed by companies that sit under the umbrella of creative giant ITV Studios.
Part of ITV, home to the U.K.’S top commercial broadcaster, ITV Studios’ evolution to global leadership is the result of decisive strategic moves.
A decade ago, the broadcaster decided to pivot from its reliance on TV advertising and grow its production and distribution business, ITV Studios.
Thanks to a spate of acquisitions and partnerships as well as organic growth, ITV Studios’ footprint now spans 55 production labels in 13 countries, including “Bodyguard” maker World Productions in the U.K., “Romulus” producer Cattleya in Italy, and “Snowpiercer” producer Tomorrow Studios in the U.S.
Meanwhile, ITV Studios’ distribution division sells to hundreds of broadcasters and platforms around the world and is home to a 46,000hour catalog. With a focus on premium titles, its shows originate from ITV Studios-owned labels like World, which
is behind new BBC One thriller “Vigil,” as well as third-party partners such as Plimsoll Productions, which is making the upcoming natural-history epic “A Year on Planet Earth.”
After such a fast expansion, some in the industry are still catching up with ITV Studios’ reach and resources.
“I think sometimes the market doesn’t fully appreciate what an extraordinary depth and range of shows we have at our disposal,” says ITV Studios managing director Julian Bellamy.
He picks out three milestones in ITV Studios growth in the past decade: the acquisition of Talpa Media in 2015, the purchase of Cattleya in 2017, and the success of “Love Island.”
“‘The Voice,’” Bellamy says, “was like a pair of jump leads on our formats business.” He explains that the show also helped ITV Studios to recruit top talent to the company.
The Cattleya deal, meanwhile, was important for underlining ITV Studios’ international ambitions in Europe and the U.S., as well as its focus on quality. “One of the keys to success for the future is going to be about a very simple thing: quality,” says Bellamy. “You have to align yourself with the very best, and Cattleya produces some absolutely wonderful drama from ‘Suburra’ to ‘Gomorrah.’”
Finally, “Love Island” highlights the importance of ITV Studios’ relationship with the ITV network, which first commissioned the show for its youthskewing ITV2 channel in the U.K. “It came about because of the often quite informal conversations with the network around what we could do in this space,” says Bellamy. Being part of an integrated broadcast, production and distribution group also means that ITV Studios is acutely aware of the needs and expectations of commissioning channels, says Bellamy.
One of the world’s fastest-growing formats, “Love Island” has now been commissioned in 17 territories; the finished tape of “Love Island” U.K. sells to 202 territories. Meanwhile, “The Voice” has 70 local versions, plus 41 of “The Voice Kids” and 14 of “The Voice Senior.”
The idea, says Maarten Meijs, who is responsible for ITV Studios’ formats business as global entertainment president, is to “protect and enhance our big brands” — building them outward wherever possible to extend the franchise in each country. Coming up soon, to mark the 10th anniversary of the show, is spinoff “The Voice All Stars,” which will reunite stars from the past. “The Chase” has also diversified with “Beat the Chasers,” “The Family Chase” and “Celebrity Special” editions.
Equally important is launching new formats around the world. Meijs cites a trend for feel-good, escapist programming that can be made locally because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. Meijs picks out “Let Love Rule,” an original Dutch format where couples leave their digital devices at home as they attempt to find true love. From the moment they meet, the couples immediately move in together. They stay for a minimum of 24 hours and can extend this to five days. The format is now being made for TV4 in Sweden and ITV2 in the U.K., where it is being produced by ITV Studios-owned 12 Yard and will be titled “The Cabins.”
ITV Studios is also developing new unscripted brands. The Global Creative Network — run by managing director Mike Beale — tracks ideas within ITV Studios’ worldwide group of production companies and helps identify commissioning opportunities.
“We’ve constantly got our ear to the ground,” says Beale. “We very much listen to our global footprint in the U.S., Australia and key European territories, and ask them.”
Beale cites the upcoming ITV series “Don’t Rock The Boat,” a competition format in which 12 celebrities row the entire length of Britain. It is produced by new indie South Shore, in which ITV Studios has a minority investment. Sharing the concept with ITV Studios’ network globally, Beale quickly found the idea gaining traction in countries, such as the U.S., Netherlands and Australia, where rowing is a popular sport.
For Bellamy, this focus on developing new shows is crucial. Looking ahead, he says: “Like all producers, we spend every waking hour trying to come up with the next big thing. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a couple more of those in our back pocket in a few years’ time?” ɿ
When it comes to scripted drama, ITV Studios’ roster is proving increasingly formidable.
It has moved far beyond its original mission as the distribution arm of the U.K. broadcaster. And in recent years, ITV Studios has helped to facilitate the global success of some of the world’s most popular television shows delivered by its in-house labels and third-party relationships.
ITV Studios amplifies the reach of dramas it is passionate about and proves that great stories come from anywhere.
“It’s really important for us to look at the best content in the world and sell it back around the world,” says Ruth Berry, managing director of global distribution at ITV Studios. “We pride ourselves on that global platform.”
Tomorrow Studios’ “Snowpiercer” is a perfect example. Made for TNT, the U.S. series is based on the iconic graphic novel and director Bong Joon Ho’s subsequent 2019 Academy Awardwinning film adaptation. It debuted in May as the No. 1 new cable entertainment program. Since then, according to Ampere analysis, it was in the top five shows globally in the week it launched on Netflix, and since then has been in the top 10 global shows in both June and July.
“‘Snowpiercer’ is a great mix,” says Berry. “It’s got so many different things that would cause people to engage with it, and that first run on TNT and Netflix has been brilliant for us but there’ll be life beyond that.”
That was the case for “Bodyguard,” the award-winning, Richard Maddenled thriller from World Productions.
World’s CEO and creative director, Simon Heath, says the distributors provided them with a “huge amount of deficit financing” before a single sale on the show had been secured.
“With drama budgets going up, the risk ITV Studios were prepared to take can’t be sniffed at,” Heath says. That risk paid off when the show premiered in 2018 to become the most-watched BBC drama in a decade. It went on to be streamed by more than 23 million households outside the U.K. in the four weeks following its launch on Netflix; it has since been picked up by over 20 international broadcasters and counting.
“What’s been great is [ITV Studios is] happy to let us do what we do, which is produce the shows,” Heath adds. “And we’re happy to let them do what they do, which is sell the
shows internationally.”
ITV Studios has invested in a raft of exciting crime shows from World to add to its arsenal. Tense military thriller “Vigil,” about the investigation of a suspicious suicide on a nuclear submarine, is currently in production as well as Season 6 of the hit cop show “Line of Duty.” “The Pembrokeshire Murders,” starring Luke Evans, has wrapped production, “ITV Studios has already pre sold it to a lot of territories,” says Heath; Berry believes these are prime examples of the dramas they champion.
While buyers crave the long-running, returning hits that are a staple of ITV Studios’ business, she says, “We also look for stories coupled with undeniable talent on and off the screen. We have the agility to get into a specific project and a specific financing need and go and find ways to piece it together.”
Berry says a “wide-ranging portfolio is really important” to ITV Studios, and that includes non-english-language programs as well as comedies from third-party producers, including Not A Real Company’s “Schitt’s Creek” and Calamity Films’ “Brassic.” Both series have performed exceedingly well with both viewers and critics and have also found a wider audience on streaming services.
“Comedy is a slightly more acquired taste internationally than a dead body [in a murder mystery],” Berry says. “But those comedies, particularly in a COVID world, are worthwhile and a real source of light in the dark for our buyers’ schedules.” ɿ
Silverprint Pictures has a purview for distinctive, high-quality and ambitious dramas that appeal to global audiences for all channels.
The London-based production company boasts a slate of critically acclaimed series featuring “distinctive and ambitious” storytelling set in and across the United Kingdom.
The company’s hits include “Vera” and long-running Scottish series “Shetland,” both created by award-winning writer Ann Cleeves.
“Shetland” is set to return for two more seasons. Also among Silverprint’s popular crime offerings is “Flesh and Blood” starring Imelda Staunton.
“There is something so highly addictive about those sorts of crime shows,” says Ruth Berry, ITV Studios’ managing director of global distribution.
Silverprint’s creative director, Kate Bartlett, says, “We’re incredibly proud of our history of partnering with the ITV Studios team. Through this relationship, we have built our shows to be critically acclaimed international successes that are loved by fans around the world.”
The company’s flagship title is another crime drama: “Vera.” Set in England’s beautiful Northumberland, the series follows the caustic police officer, played by Brenda Blethyn, and her murder investigations.
The “Vera” team returns to make six new episodes for Season 11, including two feature-length episodes to air in the spring of 2021.
“That show performed incredibly well for France, Germany and Scandinavia, it does phenomenally well [on streaming] in the U.S.,” says Berry.
“Everyone loves a good whodunit; everyone loves to play detective. ‘Vera’ has that same magic ingredient. It’s just one of those shows that works, and when they do, they can run and run.”
One of the most successful imported drama titles in Belgium, Denmark, France, Netherlands and Norway, “Vera” has been sold to more than 150 territories worldwide and series 10 averaged 7.5 million viewers in the U.K. ɿ
ITV Studios has grown a mighty family tree for nonscripted content — with new branches sprouting all the time. Via its various in-house labels and partnerships, the distributor has helped a diverse array of reality-based shows to flourish the world over.
Long-running competition shows and formats are thriving. Multistory Media’s “Come Dine With Me” is produced in 43 territories; over 14,000 episodes in many languages have aired across the globe. Bafta-winning “Love Island” is the most-watched show on ITV2 ever and is sold in 17 territories.
ITV Studios’ nature programming is expanding, too. “Wild Tokyo” is the latest in Oxford Scientific Films’ series of blue-chip natural history programs. For over half a century, the production company — based in London and Cardiff, Wales — has delivered prestigious, award-winning shows, such as “Meerkat
Manor,” and with ITV Studios, “The Magical Land of Oz.” This content has captured the attention of a global audience which Clare Birks, OSF’S chief executive, puts down to the company being “great innovators” when it comes to dynamic storytelling.
The female-run outfit partnered to produce “Wild Tokyo,” a one-off, hourlong film that takes its cues from OSF’S previous series “Wild Weather” and “Wild Korea.” OSF’S Japanese partner was keen to replicate those successes with a show focusing on the cohabitation of their metropolitan capital’s 38 million residents and its thriving local wildlife. Though intended to be timed with the 2020 Olympics, Birks notes that despite the games’ postponement, “Wild Tokyo” is still “selling really well.”
ITV Studios’ talent roster now boasts Sir David Attenborough thanks to thirdparty producers Atlantic Productions, who produced “Attenborough’s Journey,” and Icon Films who landed the veteran to narrate its film “India’s
Wild Karnataka.”
He had been aligned with ITV Studios’ competition and “we were a bit jealous,” admits Julie Meldal-johnsen, EVP of global content at ITV Studios. “But we got him last year and now we’ve actually got him for a one-off, too.”
Meldal-johnsen is also proud to be working with Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning documentarian Deeyah Khan pointing to a pair of films under the title “Trump’s America” — one on what it’s like living as a Muslim in the U.S. today and the other on the anti-abortion movement.
The studio is also capitalizing on what Meldal-johnsen calls the “culturally agnostic” appeal of engineering. A reteaming with Windfall Films, the producers of “Building Giants,” has produced “Arctic Ice Railroad” and “Waterfront House Masters,” a series which sees experts maneuver entire homes to new locations next to water. Twofour’s “Impossible Engineering,” a series that has sold in over 120 territories, will soon hit screens for a sixth season and take viewers on a journey to London, Canada’s Whistler, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Rotterdam, Netherlands, to discover the most mind-blowing feats of building mastery the world has to offer. The breadth of unscripted content in ITV Studios’ arsenal is not only a refusal to be typecast but rather a slate engineered to show that any partnership is possible.
Partnership is key for ITV Studios. Meldal-johnsen cites hard-hitting series “24 Hours in Police Custody,” from The Garden Productions, which is heading across the pond for an American version. “It just gets consistently amazing ratings here, and so we were keen to help The Garden navigate a coproduction rather than licensing the format out.”
“We are hungry for factual [content], and we’ve set ourselves a very high bar,” says Meldal-johnsen. “We pride ourselves on our long-term relationships, and our doors are always open.” ɿ
Making any thriller is tricky, says James Strong. “You have to have a narrative that’s exciting and interesting, and characters that are instantly engaging,” he says. No small task.
But the new 6-episode series “Vigil” presented the show’s creative team — including Simon Heath, CEO of World Productions, and Strong, an executive producer and director on the show — with an extra challenge.
“How do you create a story set on a nuclear submarine, in the middle of the North Atlantic, that is both realistic and visually entertaining?”, says Strong.
Heath had always wanted to do something about the military, and in particular on Britain’s nuclear deterrent. “We want shows that are going to grab an audience’s attention and make people want to sit there and watch to the end,” he says. The result is a crime drama on a British naval submarine. “Vigil” is highly anticipated due to the strength of its filmmakers. World Productions is also behind the acclaimed hits “Bodyguard” and “Line of Duty”; Strong is a Bafta-winning director; and Tom Edge, the creator and executive producer of “Vigil,” comes off “Judy” and “The Crown.”
Vigil’s cast includes BAFTA winner
Suranne Jones (“Doctor Foster”), Rose Leslie (“Game of Thrones,”) Shaun Evans (“Endeavour”), Martin Compston (“Line of Duty”) and Gary Lewis (“His Dark Materials”).
In the series, detective Amy Silva (Jones) is assigned to investigate a suspicious suicide on board a Trident sub. When her assignment extends past the intended 72 hours, she delves into the sunless, isolated world of submariners, then struggles with isolation and loneliness.
Strong explains, “She is both brilliant and the best person for the job as far as anyone can tell. She is also deeply damaged through past trauma.” ɿ
James Strong on the set of “Vigil.” The producers consulted with ex-navy submariners to design a set that resembled real Trident submarines.
Asked for the secret to running a global studio, ITV Studios managing director Julian Bellamy has a simple answer: “Hire good people.” “Give them a very clear direction, trust them, empower and enable them to do their job. And obviously hold them accountable, just as I am,” he adds.
A former producer and network executive, Bellamy joined ITV Studios in 2014. Having worked both as a buyer and creator of content, he understands the demands of production as well as the needs of broadcasters and streaming platforms.
Drawing on this experience, Bellamy says that during his time in charge at ITV Studios he has sought to build a company that is “creative, entrepreneurial and global” in outlook.
Bellamy believes creativity is “the very first foundation stone of any producer, large or small.” ITV Studios, he adds, gravitates toward working with entrepreneurial talent: “The people who tend to flourish with us are a blend of great creators, but there’s a commercial mindset that comes with them. More often than not, they are people who want to build businesses.”
ITV Studios, he explains, has a “very strong philosophy” about how it works with creative talent in the group, and that is by giving them trust and freedom. “There is an independence of spirit running through the group,” says Bellamy. “We think you get the best out of people if they feel they are running their own shop.”
Bellamy also stresses the global mindset of ITV Studios. Just 10 years ago, ITV Studios was essentially a U.K. group with a relatively small international arm. These days, it is much more worldly: 55% of its revenue is now generated outside of the U.K.
As for so many in the entertainment industry, the COVID-19 pandemic has proved a testing time professionally for Bellamy. ITV Studios, he says, had some 230 shows that were shooting, either in the field or in studios, when lockdowns hit.
Most had to shut down. But now 80% of those shows are back in production and that figure is rising daily.
COVID-19, he reckons, has been a catalyst for technical innovation. “It’s going to leave a lasting impact on the business,” says Bellamy. ɿ