On January 15th the French media group Mediawan announced it had purchased a majority shareholding in Palomar, an independent Italian production company.
Created in late 2015 by Pierre-Antoine Capton, Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse, Mediawan defines itself as an independent platform for audiovisual content. It already owns several media and production companies, including the AB group and Mon voisin Productions, which produced the French series Dix Pour Cent.
Palomar is Italy’s largest producer of series and films. Created in 1986 by Carlo Degli Esposti, its series Commissioner Montalbano is a huge ratings success, now in its 12th season and first transmitted by RAI in 1999. For this year Palomar’s founder has announced a series adapted from Umberto Eco’s novel The Name of the Rose starring American actor John Turturro and the English Rupper Everett. It will be broadcast in France on OCS – Orange Cinema Series.
Mediawan CEO Pierre-Antoine Capton said, “Palomar’s executives are convinced by [Mediawan’s] ability to integrate production companies, allowing them to grow while maintaining their autonomy.” For their first co-production the two companies will create an Italian version of Dix Pour Cent (Ten percent), which has been a great success in France.
With this first European purchase, Mediawan begins its international expansion. And the ambitious group, with a volume of activity worth €270 million, will not stop there. Pierre-Antoine Capton has announced he wants to establish the company in Spain and Germany. The group intends to take advantage of the strong competition between the various SVOD platforms which are always in search of exclusive works, ready to pay a high price to acquire quality series and films.
Sources: http://www.zonebourse.com, http://www.capital.fr, http://www.strategies.fr
