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Seven sets-up UK production house, 7Wonder

Seven has formed a joint-venture production house to produce content for the UK market.

2014-03-05_1136Seven is setting up shop in the UK with its own production company, 7Wonder.

This follows recent partnerships with Beyond to produce content for the North American market.

7Wonder will focus on the creation of new programmes and formats, initially for the United Kingdom television market, and is a joint venture between Seven, and former key execs from Maverick Television, Alexandra Fraser, Liza Abbott and Simon Ellse. Maverick has produced titles including Embarrassing Bodies, Stephen Fry: Out There, Billy Connolly’s Route 66 and How To Look Good Naked.

Tim Worner, CEO of Seven West Media, said: “Seven West Media is the leading content company in Australia with some of the most successful brands and franchises. The Seven Network is recognised as the leader in Australian produced television programming. Our success is built on our ability to create and own compelling content, and to deliver that content to the biggest audiences across our media platforms. 7 Wonder underlines a key part of our strategy for today and in the future: the expansion of our presence in the production of content.”

Seven has enjoyed major international success with its in-house content including Home and Away, My Kitchen Rules, Border Security, A Place To Call Home, House Rules and Packed to the Rafters.

Brad Lyons, Seven’s Director of Production, said: “Seven is recognised as a leader in the development and production of Australian television. We are driving our own future with the programmes and content we create and leverage, and we are making deliberate and considered moves into new opportunities not only for our own primary market in Australia but increasingly in international markets.

“7Wonder forms a key element in our plans. And, we couldn’t be happier to be joining with people we have known and regarded highly over a number of years. Alex and Liza have a terrific track record of success. They have passion, ideas and at Maverick ran a great business. We’re looking forward to working with them in the next phase of their careers in this new joint venture as we focus on the growing UK market.”

5 Responses

  1. While I commend Seven for making its own shows at the network with local Australian production staff instead of hiring lots of English and Kiwi’s, I do fear what this new partnership could do to damage local jobs. Since the birth of the Tent-Pole reality shows in Australia there has been a steady decline in skills and training many companies instead opting to import UK workers instead of training local crews up. Will this new venture see a further decline in Aussie TV professionals and more jobs for the foreign workers?

  2. Think its fantastic what 7 are doing, expanding into the UK market. The UK have some fantastic shows which appeal to the Australian audiences and I can see that this is a feather in the 7 cap for their venture. Hope this goes extremely well for channel 7, they seem to be doing most things right these days, must have good staff.

  3. “Seven is recognised as a leader in the development and production of Australian television”. When did this happen. I thought that ABC would be considered the leader in that field.
    Seven is the leader in cannibalizing other shows & staff from other networks to get to No 1.

    1. Maxxdude: I’ve written in the past about how ABC outsources much of their flagship shows to the independent production sector. There was a big backlash by unions on this a few years ago, all filed here. Whilst ABC still makes some content in-house, it’s not like the old days. By contrast, Seven creates and owns many of its local successes (as per story), which contrasts wildly to Nine and TEN. I’m not anointing anyone the leader in the field, but I can say with confidence that in many ways Seven is the envy of other networks in this regard. As for content that mirrors other networks, sorry they all play that game.

  4. wonder if this will impact the UK version of MKR, will 7wonder take over production in a similar way shine took over masterchef from fremantle once they were established in Australia?

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