ITV Worldwide Expands

ITV Worldwide has tripled its development and acquisitions investment fund to significantly expand its work with independent producers.
The increase was announced in June by Peter Iacono, President and Managing Director, ITV Worldwide at a reception attended by many of the UK's production community.
Iacono commented: "It's all about programmes. We all work for the programmes and we are looking to enhance our existing relationships and expand into new relationships.
"Our philosophy is to enable creative people to be creative - to make compelling entertainment for ITV Worldwide to distribute.
"Essentially the message to producers around the world is 'You do what you do best and we do what we do best!' We have seriously increased funds to co-finance and gap-finance productions," he said.
ITV Worldwide is the newly integrated business which combines the recently merged Granada International and Granada Ventures, creating a one stop distribution house for home entertainment, TV and consumer products.
ITV Worldwide looks to expand the relationships it has built with a host of independent production companies in a number of different ways including a 25% stake in award-winning producer Mammoth Screen, exclusive first look deals with entertainment producers such as Zig Zag and drama producers including Quickfire Media and many distribution deals with UK, Canadian and Australian producers across key genres such as drama, reality and MOWs.
Emmanuelle Namiech, Director of Acquisitions and Co-Productions added: "We’re very excited to be able to build on the success of our partnerships with independent producers.
"In extensively increasing our acquisitions budget we will have even more opportunities to be involved with highly original and compelling programming brands with global appeal."
(BMcC)