UKTV combines forces with Five to secure Rory and Paddy in unique content deal with IWC Media
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UKTV has signed a landmark tripartite content deal with Five and IWC Media for its new factual channel, Blighty, that will see the award-winning broadcaster part-finance a new second series while also acquiring the first. Both series star British comedians Rory McGrath and Paddy McGuinness and are produced by Scotland’s largest independent, IWC Media, part of the RDF Media Group.
Negotiated by UKTV’s Acting Director of Content Acquisitions, Alexandra Finlay, Five’s Steve Gowans and IWC’s Hamish Barbour, Managing Director IWC & Group Director RDF Scotland, this unique content deal will see Five and UKTV combine forces with IWC to produce the brand new Rory and Paddy’s Even Greater British Adventure. This 6 x 60’ factual entertainment series will premiere on Five before receiving its pay TV premiere on Blighty shortly afterwards. Commissioned by Five’s Steve Gowans and UKTV’s Director of Factual and Factual Entertainment, Jane Rogerson, it was ordered by UKTV’s Director of Factual, Lifestyle and New Media, Jane Mote, alongside Blighty’s Channel Head, Adrian Wills. This deal gives UKTV the exclusive multichannel broadcast rights for this new series, while the same rights for the first 4 x 60’ series, Rory and Paddy’s Great British Adventure, will be shared with Fiver. UKTV will also share the non-linear broadcast rights for both series with Five and Fiver respectively.
UKTV’s Alexandra Finlay says, “The Rory and Paddy format is such a perfect fit for Blighty that we are thrilled to be actively working with Five in bringing to air another brand new series, while also acquiring the first from IWC Media as part of the same innovative deal.”
Five’s Steve Gowans adds, “I’m delighted to welcome Rory, Paddy and their camper van back to Five. The first series was a big hit with our viewers and I’m sure we can build on their unique brand of informative silliness.”
IWC’s Helen Nightingale comments, “Rory and Paddy’s Even Greater British Adventure is a glorious celebration of the eccentricities that make this country great; the brave, the bizarre and the downright bonkers - but most of all it’s just very, very funny.'”
Produced by IWC Media, Rory and Paddy’s Even Greater British Adventure follows our intrepid duo around the UK on an all new rollocking road trip as they compete in a range of quintessential British pursuits, including clog dancing, black pudding throwing, hen racing, lawnmower racing and haggis hurling. Their exhausting British odyssey takes them to one of six different regions in each show - Scotland, Central England and the Shires, the South West, the North, the South and Wales - to play the locals at their own games while also competing against each other.
Rory and Paddy’s Even Greater British Adventure was commissioned by Steve Gowans at Five after the success of the first series. It will be executive produced by IWC’s Helen Nightingale and series produced by Guy Templeton. The Commissioning Executive for UKTV is Jane Rogerson, Director of Factual and Factual Entertainment Commissioning. Currently filming on location across Britain, this hugely entertaining new series will premiere on Five before its multi-channel debut on Blighty.
Blighty’s Adrian Wills says, “We are thrilled to have got our hands on these two fantastic series featuring Rory McGrath and Paddy McGuinness – they are such a perfect fit for Blighty and will sit perfectly alongside our own fully-funded commissions such as My Brilliant Britain with Vic Reeves and Danny Wallace and Made in Britain with Dom Joly.”
Since relaunching on 17th February as a channel dedicated to celebrating all that’s great about Britain, Blighty has gone from strength to strength. The premiere episode of its latest commission, Made In Britain featuring Dom Joly, increased slot average by 433% with consolidated BARB data showed that an 57% of total viewing came from PVRs alone. Made in Britain also drove traffic to the channel’s site, www.loveblighty.co.uk, accounting for 42% of site traffic during the series’ premiere.
Notes to Editors
Blighty (www.loveblighty.co.uk)
Blighty unashamedly celebrates all that is great, unique and inspirational about Britain today. Packed with programmes that explore the complexity, irony, contradictory and definitely quirky traits of modern Britain, Blighty revels in what makes the country brilliant. From Who Do You Think You Are? and Coast to Trawlermen to Britain From Above, as well as some stunning new commissions including My Brilliant Britain, there is no channel like Blighty and there is no place like Britain!
Where to find Blighty: Sky channel 566 and Virgin TV channel 206.
About UKTV (www.uktv.co.uk)
Formed in 1997, UKTV is an independent commercial joint venture, between BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, and Virgin Media. Attracting up to 36.5 million viewers each month, the network consists of ten distinctive TV channels – Watch, G.O.L.D., Dave, Alibi, Eden, Blighty, Yesterday, Home, Really and Good Food – offering a broad range of quality programming across entertainment, lifestyle and factual programming. UKTV currently operates 17 broadcast streams when multiplexes (+1s) and broadband are taken into account, and 11 highly successful websites.
Promising to creatively connect its audiences with great programming, UKTV’s successful programming strategy combines quality content from the BBC with high profile original commissions and key acquisitions. All UKTV channels are distributed on Sky and Virgin Media. Dave and Yesterday are also available on Freeview.
About FIVE
The first series on Five outperformed the slot with an average of 1.4m viewers and 5.9% share. The series did particularly well with younger viewers. 16-34s delivered a 7.0% share to the series, 38% above the slot average, accounting for 24% of viewers.
About IWC Media (IWC)
IWC is a major regional/national player in today's market and is the biggest independent production company in Scotland. Since December 2005 IWC has been part of the RDF Media Group. IWC is a multi-genre company working mostly from offices in Glasgow to produce high-profile and award-winning documentaries, features series, specialist factual and drama programmes. IWC is well known for its work with major and celebrated presenters.
Recent factual credits include JK Rowling: A Year in the Life (ITV1), Extreme Fishing with Robson Green (five), Stephen Hawking: Master of the Universe (Channel 4), Professor Richard Dawkins’ The Genius of Charles Darwin (Channel 4) and Stephen Fry’s The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive (BBC Two). In features, IWC makes the highly successful Location Location Location and Relocation Relocation with Phil Spencer and Kirstie Allsopp. Drama credits include Room with a View for ITV1 and the long-running new talent strand, Coming Up, for Channel 4.
IWC works for all major UK broadcasters and last year produced over 100 hours of original programming for customers as diverse as BBC One and Discovery, Five and Channel 4, UKTV and BBC Scotland. Hamish Barbour is Glasgow-based Managing Director IWC Media and Group Director RDF Scotland.
For more information, please contact:-
Rebecca Edwards, Senior Corporate Communications Manager, UKTV
020 7299 6261 / 07974 985 453 / Rebecca.edwards@uktv.co.uk
Tracey O'Connor, Media Relations Manager – Entertainment, Five
Tel: 020 7550 5553
Mob: 07753 811 901
Rachel Davidson| Publicist
RDF MEDIA GROUP
tel. +44 207 013 4259| M. 07890 840207
rachel.davidson@rdfmedia.com
UKTV’s Alexandra Finlay says, “The Rory and Paddy format is such a perfect fit for Blighty that we are thrilled to be actively working with Five in bringing to air another brand new series, while also acquiring the first from IWC Media as part of the same innovative deal.”
Five’s Steve Gowans adds, “I’m delighted to welcome Rory, Paddy and their camper van back to Five. The first series was a big hit with our viewers and I’m sure we can build on their unique brand of informative silliness.”
IWC’s Helen Nightingale comments, “Rory and Paddy’s Even Greater British Adventure is a glorious celebration of the eccentricities that make this country great; the brave, the bizarre and the downright bonkers - but most of all it’s just very, very funny.'”
Produced by IWC Media, Rory and Paddy’s Even Greater British Adventure follows our intrepid duo around the UK on an all new rollocking road trip as they compete in a range of quintessential British pursuits, including clog dancing, black pudding throwing, hen racing, lawnmower racing and haggis hurling. Their exhausting British odyssey takes them to one of six different regions in each show - Scotland, Central England and the Shires, the South West, the North, the South and Wales - to play the locals at their own games while also competing against each other.
Rory and Paddy’s Even Greater British Adventure was commissioned by Steve Gowans at Five after the success of the first series. It will be executive produced by IWC’s Helen Nightingale and series produced by Guy Templeton. The Commissioning Executive for UKTV is Jane Rogerson, Director of Factual and Factual Entertainment Commissioning. Currently filming on location across Britain, this hugely entertaining new series will premiere on Five before its multi-channel debut on Blighty.
Blighty’s Adrian Wills says, “We are thrilled to have got our hands on these two fantastic series featuring Rory McGrath and Paddy McGuinness – they are such a perfect fit for Blighty and will sit perfectly alongside our own fully-funded commissions such as My Brilliant Britain with Vic Reeves and Danny Wallace and Made in Britain with Dom Joly.”
Since relaunching on 17th February as a channel dedicated to celebrating all that’s great about Britain, Blighty has gone from strength to strength. The premiere episode of its latest commission, Made In Britain featuring Dom Joly, increased slot average by 433% with consolidated BARB data showed that an 57% of total viewing came from PVRs alone. Made in Britain also drove traffic to the channel’s site, www.loveblighty.co.uk, accounting for 42% of site traffic during the series’ premiere.
Notes to Editors
Blighty (www.loveblighty.co.uk)
Blighty unashamedly celebrates all that is great, unique and inspirational about Britain today. Packed with programmes that explore the complexity, irony, contradictory and definitely quirky traits of modern Britain, Blighty revels in what makes the country brilliant. From Who Do You Think You Are? and Coast to Trawlermen to Britain From Above, as well as some stunning new commissions including My Brilliant Britain, there is no channel like Blighty and there is no place like Britain!
Where to find Blighty: Sky channel 566 and Virgin TV channel 206.
About UKTV (www.uktv.co.uk)
Formed in 1997, UKTV is an independent commercial joint venture, between BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, and Virgin Media. Attracting up to 36.5 million viewers each month, the network consists of ten distinctive TV channels – Watch, G.O.L.D., Dave, Alibi, Eden, Blighty, Yesterday, Home, Really and Good Food – offering a broad range of quality programming across entertainment, lifestyle and factual programming. UKTV currently operates 17 broadcast streams when multiplexes (+1s) and broadband are taken into account, and 11 highly successful websites.
Promising to creatively connect its audiences with great programming, UKTV’s successful programming strategy combines quality content from the BBC with high profile original commissions and key acquisitions. All UKTV channels are distributed on Sky and Virgin Media. Dave and Yesterday are also available on Freeview.
About FIVE
The first series on Five outperformed the slot with an average of 1.4m viewers and 5.9% share. The series did particularly well with younger viewers. 16-34s delivered a 7.0% share to the series, 38% above the slot average, accounting for 24% of viewers.
About IWC Media (IWC)
IWC is a major regional/national player in today's market and is the biggest independent production company in Scotland. Since December 2005 IWC has been part of the RDF Media Group. IWC is a multi-genre company working mostly from offices in Glasgow to produce high-profile and award-winning documentaries, features series, specialist factual and drama programmes. IWC is well known for its work with major and celebrated presenters.
Recent factual credits include JK Rowling: A Year in the Life (ITV1), Extreme Fishing with Robson Green (five), Stephen Hawking: Master of the Universe (Channel 4), Professor Richard Dawkins’ The Genius of Charles Darwin (Channel 4) and Stephen Fry’s The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive (BBC Two). In features, IWC makes the highly successful Location Location Location and Relocation Relocation with Phil Spencer and Kirstie Allsopp. Drama credits include Room with a View for ITV1 and the long-running new talent strand, Coming Up, for Channel 4.
IWC works for all major UK broadcasters and last year produced over 100 hours of original programming for customers as diverse as BBC One and Discovery, Five and Channel 4, UKTV and BBC Scotland. Hamish Barbour is Glasgow-based Managing Director IWC Media and Group Director RDF Scotland.
For more information, please contact:-
Rebecca Edwards, Senior Corporate Communications Manager, UKTV
020 7299 6261 / 07974 985 453 / Rebecca.edwards@uktv.co.uk
Tracey O'Connor, Media Relations Manager – Entertainment, Five
Tel: 020 7550 5553
Mob: 07753 811 901
Rachel Davidson| Publicist
RDF MEDIA GROUP
tel. +44 207 013 4259| M. 07890 840207
rachel.davidson@rdfmedia.com
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