Following a greenlight from regulatory authorities, the merger between 21st Century Fox controlled Shine Group and Apollo Global Management’s Endemol and Core Media groups was made official on Wednesday, along with a series of managerial appointments and restructuring. Endemol Shine Group -50/50 owned by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox and the US equity firm Apollo-will start trading under its new name as of January 1st 2015 and will continue the process of integrating the three group’s operations during the first half of 2015.
The new group headed by CEO Sophie Turner Laing will be headquartered in Amsterdam while its newly integrated sales and distribution operation will be London-based.
The group’s International Operations in 30 markets –including the Nordic region where Shine controls nine companies -will be headed by Gary Carter, Shine’s chairman Northern Europe and Shine 360 as well as Endemol’s current Chief Operating Officer Martha Brass. So far, France and Germany are the two first territories to have completed the restructuring of the Shine and Endemol businesses in those markets.
The merger of Shine, Endemol and Core is the latest in a flurry of M&A activities that have shaken the world of content creation over the last couple of years due to increased competition from new digital players such as Netflix and the rise of multi-platform viewing and hunger for quality drama and entertainment programmes.
International drama hits within Endemol Shine Group include the UK series The Fall, Broadchurch, the Scandinavian shows Bron, Arne Dahl and Sandhamn Murders produced and co-produced by Filmlance in Sweden and Lilyhammer produced by Rubicon TV in Norway.