Zodiak Media

Zodiak Media
Industry Media
Founded 2010
Headquarters Paris, France
Key people
 Marc-Antoine d'Halluin, CEO
Parent De Agostini
Website http://www.zodiakmedia.com

Zodiak Media is an independent media company that produces entertainment, factual, drama and kids' programming, with 45 companies operating in 15 countries. Zodiak Media owns properties such as Millennium, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Wife Swap, The Secret Millionaire, The Inbetweeners, Totally Spies!, Fort Boyard, and Being Human.

Zodiak Media is headquartered in Paris and with other key offices in London, Los Angeles, Milan, Stockholm and Moscow. It is majority-owned by Italian conglomerate De Agostini and operates across the world.[1]

History

Zodiak Media was created in June 2010 following the acquisition of the RDF Media Group - founded by David Frank in 1993 - one of the UK’s largest independent production and distribution companies with operations in the UK and the US.[2] Combined with former acquisitions Magnolia (2007), the Marathon Group (2007) and Zodiak Television (2008), the acquisition of RDF consolidated the company's position as a global force in the production and distribution of content for multi-media platforms, the most significant of which is television.

Main properties

Programmes produced by Zodiak Media companies are distributed internationally by Zodiak Rights, the international rights and distribution arm of Zodiak Media. Zodiak Rights has dedicated in-house Licensing Divisions who license, acquire and distribute rights to the global marketplace.

Zodiak Media-produced scripted programming include: Being Human, the supernatural series for BBC Three and Syfy US; Wallander, the BAFTA award-winning drama series for BBC One starring Kenneth Branagh; The Millennium Trilogy, the highest grossing Scandinavian movie of all time; Singlehanded, the Irish and UK coproduction about a lone police sergeant in rural Ireland; and cult French drama series Saint-Tropez.

Zodiak Media also own the format rights to Fort Boyard, The Secret Millionaire, The Best Singers(* only distribution: The Best Singers was created and is owned by FTV Rights B.V. The Netherlands), That’s My Kid! and Location Location Location.

Zodiak Rights has a dedicated Family and Children’s distribution arm, Zodiak Kids. The family and children’s catalogue includes Waybuloo, Totally Spies!, Rekkit Rabbit, Mister Maker, and Gormiti.

Zodiak Media companies

Zodiak Americas[3]

Zodiak Americas is the North, Central and South American operation for Zodiak Media. The division's three companies; Zodiak Los Angeles, Zodiak New York and Zodiak Latino; distribute Zodiak Media properties and produce original content for their respective service areas. Production credits include:

Zodiak France

Zodiak’s French division comprises seven different companies: Marathon Media, Tele Images, Marathon mages, GTV, Mona Lisa, Adventure Line Productions and KM ; and produces a variety of content across several genres including documentaries, factual programmes, scripted drama, and entertainment formats.

Zodiak France's production credits include:

Zodiak Kids

Zodiak's Kids division compries three different companies: DHX Media and The Foundation; and produces a variety of pre-school shows.

Zodiak Kids' production credits include:

Zodiak Middle East Asia and Australasia (MEAA)

Zodiak's MEAA arm consists solely of its Mumbai-based production company Sol, whose production credits include Koffee with Karan, Nach Baliye, Rakhi Ka Swayamwar, Zara Nach Ke DIkha and Just Dance and others.

Zodiak Nordic

Zodiak’s Nordic division comprises companies operating in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland. The Mastiff brand unifies the operations in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, while Jarowskij operates in Sweden and Zodiak Finland in Finland.

Zodiak's Yellow Bird subsidiary is credited with the Swedish-language film adaptation of Stieg Larsen's Millennium series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest).

Zodiak Rights

Zodiak Rights is the international rights business of Zodiak Media, claims a catalogue of around 15,000 hours of content. Zodiak Rights specialises in worldwide television and home entertainment distribution and all aspects of licensing, with sales teams in London and Paris.

Zodiak Southern Europe

Zodiak Southern Europe consists of five companies across Italy and Spain. It comprises the Magnolia companies (Magnolia Italy, and Magnolia Spain), as well as 2BCom in Italy.

Zodiak UK, Belgium & Netherlands

Zodiak UK, Belgium & Netherlands is a division comprising 13 production companies in the three territories, UK, Belgium and Netherlands.

Its various units include among their production credits Being Human, Secret Millionaire, Extreme Fishing, Only Connect, Waybuloo, Dickinson’s Real Deals, Rab C Nesbitt, Gadget Geeks, Help! My House is Falling Down, Show Me The Monet, Peking Express and Fort Boyard.

Zodiak Vostok

Zodiak Vostok (Vostok meaning "east" in Russian) has three subsidiaries producing content for Russia’s leading broadcasters.

Zodiak Active

Zodiak Active is dedicated to the creation, development and production of digital and branded content across all platforms and YouTube channels management.

References

Variety - David Frank interview 2/4/2012

C21 Media - Zodiak Media pledges $50m for US push

Deadline Hollywood search results for Zodiak Media

  1. ↑ Keslassy, Elsa. "New Zodiak chief overseas expansion". Variety. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  2. ↑ Sweney, Mark "RDF Media sold to Zodiak Entertainment", The Guardian, Wednesday 2 June 2010. Retrieved on 27 November 2012.
  3. ↑ AJ Marechal (January 11, 2012). "Zodiak streamlines in Western Hemisphere". Variety. Retrieved 7 December 2012.