RDF Zodiak, Super-indie Reality TV Coming to U.S.
RDF, with TV shows VH1 The Price of Beauty premiering tonight and ABC Wife Swap having its season premiere April 2nd, is combining with mega-TV European producer Zodiak to become the third largest TV production company in the world
By Robin Rowe
RDF produces The Price of Beauty starring Jessica Simpson
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Gosh!TV) 3/15/2010 – “The Zodiak deal for us is potentially transformational,” says RDF USA CEO Grant Mansfield. “It gives us access to a huge catalog of successful formats in Europe, rather than just in the UK.”
Mansfield has only been at RDF USA for about four weeks, but has worked at RDF in London for about seven years and is a significant shareholder. Besides being the U.S. CEO, he’s group director of factual entertainment and comedy, overseeing most of the production out of the UK. He sees vast untapped potential for RDF in the U.S.
“Natalka Znak is a key part of our strategy going forward,” says Mansfield. “She’s going to join as chief creative officer. She’s the star producer of non-scripted programming in the UK at the moment. She’s created and produced three of the biggest hits in the UK and a lot more besides. She’s also made those shows for the U.S. market. She’s made I’m a Celebrity and Hell’s Kitchen over here.” Znak, who Mansfield hired four months ago, will serve as the creative head of the company when she arrives in May.
“We’re very keen to get back to the core of our business, devising and producing hit television shows,” says Mansfield. Earlier this year RDF let go of its digital (Internet) division and talent management operations in order to focus on creating TV shows. The Price of Beauty with Jessica Simpson premieres tonight. And Wife Swap returns to ABC for its 11th season on April 2nd. The Secret Millionaire, which started on the Fox network, will return as a mid-season replacement on ABC.
RDF has grown very rapidly. In the UK, RDF is known as a super-indie, one of the five biggest TV producers. “When I arrived seven years ago we had 70 people working at the company,” says Mansfield. “It’s near 800 now. It’s exciting to be part of a company that grows very rapidly.” Key to the company’s financial success was a change in British TV regulation.
“We lobbied the government and persuaded them that if they wanted a creative industry to flourish, we had to be able to own the content we created for the broadcasters,” says Mansfield. “In the UK there was a piece of legislation that independent producers got to own the content they were creating for broadcasters. It transformed a lifestyle business to a proper business.”
That change came about six years ago and RDF started making real money, both from content creation and from content distribution of their own and other companies’ shows. Other UK producers were making money, too. Then came a lot of consolidation of UK production companies, and RDF emerged as a super-indie.
Mansfield attributes the company’s success to putting a lot of time and money into development. “You have to be courageous enough to put a lot time and effort into development, which by and large isn’t financed. That’s your risk capital. In the UK we have a reputation for producing very clever as well as very successful formats.”
The RDF/Zodiak deal is expected to be complete within a couple months. After being dominated by independents in the ’80s, the trend for many years in the U.S. TV market has been toward network-owned shows. Having a U.S. super-indie may signal a resurgence of U.S. independent TV production companies and greater creativity, as it has in the UK.