Current affairs television and radio production company Ten Alps moved further along the acquisition trail this week after it bought history and factual documentary specialist Blakeway Productions for a total consideration of £1.025m.
Blakeway is a 10-year-old awardwinning maker of Channel 4 News reports and documentaries that include Strike: When Britain Went To War, marking the 20th anniversary of the miners’ strike this year and Empire: How Britain Made The Modern World.
The company also made The Major Years for the BBC and The Queen’s Story for ITV.
Blakeway – Ten Alps’s second acquisition this year, following its purchase of 3BM in March – will continue to be run within Ten Alps by founder Denys Blakeway, on a twoyear contract.
“The journalism and the production will remain the same, and I retain editorial control,” Blakeway told Press Gazette, adding that it had always been his intention to build the company and sell eventually.
He said the marketplace was becoming increasingly difficult for “boutique” production companies to compete for money and commissions against the larger operators. “We were beginning to feel like a minnow in a large pond,” he added.
The company currently has a number of projects in production, including Diana’s Legacy for ITV, looking at the late Princess of Wales’s impact on the Royal Family; a film about Winston Churchill after the Second World War for BBC Four; and a programme on the hidden country houses of Britain for Five.
By Wale Azeez
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
