| Industry | Television production |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Paris, London |
| Key people | David Frank |
| Employees | ~ |
| Parent | De Agostini |
| Website | http://www.zodiakmedia.com |
Zodiak Media is a Anglo-American television production company. It was formed in 2010 when RDF Media Group was acquired by, and merged with Zodiak Entertainment. The company is owned by the De Agostini Group, and has its global headquarters in London.
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In 2008 the Italian De Agostini Group acquired Zodiak Television and merged it with Marathon Media Group and Magnolia Group to form Zodiak Entertainment. In July 2010 following a merger with RDF Media, Zodiak Entertainment was rebranded to Zodiak Media Group.[1]
Zodiak's films include Men Who Hate Women, based on the Stieg Larsson best-selling novel "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".[2][3]
RDF’s production activities include making entertainment programming, reality shows, factual programming, drama, comedy and children’s programming. This is done through the group’s content companies; RDF Television, IWC Media, Touchpaper Television, The Foundation, The Comedy Unit, Presentable and RDF Contact. RDF’s content division also produces content for non-standard TV platforms.
RDF Television is the largest production company in the Zodiak Media Group. It has offices in West London and Bristol. It was founded in 1993 and has established an outstanding reputation for producing popular and innovative programmes across programming genres of Entertainment, Factual Entertainment, Comedy, Documentaries, and Daytime & Features.
In recent years, RDF Television programming has won the Rose d'Or of Montreux and Golden Rose of Lucerne (Europe's top entertainment award), an International Emmy, as well as numerous BAFTA, Royal Television Society, and Broadcast awards. Key shows have included: Wogan's Perfect Recall, How the Other Half Live, Shipwrecked: Battle of the Islands, Wife Swap, and Scrapheap Challenge (Channel 4); Dickinson's Real Deal, A Night for Heroes: The Military Awards, and The Truth About… (ITV1); Ladette to Lady (ITV1/Network 9);Oz & James Drink to Britain (BBC Two).
Zodiak Rights is Zodiak’s distribution and content exploitation business. It is engaged in selling TV shows and formats to broadcasters worldwide as well as leveraging value from content rights and brands through licensing and merchandising.
Zodiak USA (formerly RDF USA) is the US arm of the Zodiak Media Group; the Company's offices are located in Los Angeles and New York.
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RDF Media received Broadcast magazine's Best Production Company of the Year Award for 2002, 2004 and 2006, the only company to win this award on more than one occasion. Several of its programmes have won BAFTA, RTS, and Rose D'Or awards. Recent awards include:[4]
The detective series Wallander (TV series), produced by Zodiak's subsidiary Yellow Bird (company), won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Drama Series in 2009.[5] Wallander broadcast on BBC One in the UK in 2008 and Public Broadcasting Service Masterpiece (TV series) in the U.S. in 2009.
In July 2007 RDF found itself at the centre of controversy when the BBC showed a trailer to journalists of an RDF documentary series, A Year with the Queen, that seemed to show the monarch storming out of a photoshoot with celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. It later emerged the Queen was walking into the shoot. Stephen Lambert, RDF's Chief Creative Officer, took responsibility for making a misleading edit for a trailer that was shown to international co-producers, although the promotions company Red Bee subsequently edited the trailer that was shown to journalists. Both the BBC and ITV froze all new commissions from RDF until the completion of an independent inquiry – the Wyatt Report – into the "Tiaragate affair".[6] Stephen Lambert resigned from the company as an independent inquiry into the affair was published on 5 October 2007. That report, commissioned by the BBC, said that no one "consciously set out to defame or misrepresent the Queen in the tape" but also that "RDF edited the footage of the Queen in a cavalier fashion".[7] Both Peter Fincham, Controller of BBC One, and his Head of Publicity, Jane Fletcher, also resigned following the report.[8]