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EXCLUSIVE: The Australian television M&A market is set for its first big deal in a minute or two.
We can reveal WTFN, one of the remaining indies in Australia’s consolidated production market, has put itself up for sale.
Bosses at the 23-year-old company are seeking buyers and we hear they have instructed ABP Advisory, the UK-based M&A firm run by former ACF Investment Bank MD Hasham Khan, to explore a deal. At present, the company is privately owned.
WTFN didn’t respond to requests for comment and ABP declined to comment.
Melbourne-based WTFN is known for returning unscripted series such as Nine Network’s reno show Space Invaders, long-running Network Ten doc series Bondi Vet and medical series Paramedics and Emergency. Deadline hears there are plans for concerted pushes into scripted and high-end docs.
Launched by producers Daryl Talbot and Steve Oemcke in 2001, the company owns a library of more than 2,000 in-house hours, a sizeable number that reflects it has numerous multi-season returners. Its distribution arm, Fred Media, shops the catalog globally, with Bondi Vet selling to more than 100 territories.
Besides that, WTFN also operates Radar MCN, a multi-channel network of digital, social and FAST channels that has more than five million cumulative subscribers. It also operates talent agency Empire Talent, makes branded content and has offices in Melbourne, Sydney and London.
The Australian television M&A market has been quiet in the past few years, with ITV Studios’ acquisition of Lingo Pictures in late 2022 and Banijay’s takeover of Beyond International the only two deals of major note. Much of the country’s production market is consolidated, with the likes of Fremantle, Banijay, Warner Bros International Television Production, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Television and Blue Ant Media represented via various investments and entities.
Still, several producers with international track records remain independent. They include the Aboriginal Australia-focused Blackfella Films, The Gruen Transfer maker CJZ, Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films, Colin From Accounts producer Easy Tiger, Black Snow’s Goalpost Pictures, Secrets & Lies maker Hoodlum, Last King of the Cross firm Helium, No Activity creator Jungle Entertainment, The Newsreader producer Werner Film Productions, The Clearing‘s Wooden Horse and Working Dog Productions, maker of comedy series Utopia.
With WTFN now on the block, that list is set to get one shorter.
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