Wark set to sell production company

By Hamish Mackay

BBC TV Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark could pocket £2m-£3m if the
sale of Glasgow-based independent TV production company IWC Media goes
ahead as expected.

Industry sources are confident IWC Media will be taken over by
English independent RDF Media for £10m- £15m within the next few weeks.

The
two companies have worked together for more than a year, with RDF
contracting IWC to develop programme ideas in return for first refusal
rights over much of IWC’s output.

A spokesman for IWC Media said:
“We can confirm we are in the early stages of discussions with RDF
Media, and that we will announce any developments as and when they
happen.”

Wark is a non-executive director of IWC Media – the
company formed bythe merger of Wark Clements and Ideal World, run by
Muriel Gray and her husband Hamish Barbour. Wark and her husband Alan
Clements were co-founders of Wark Clements.

Barbour and Clements
are expected to stay on at London-based RDF, which will retain the
management and name at IWC Media, with Sue Oriel continuing as managing
director.

Gray is also reported to be selling her shares, which could earn her about £1.5m.

Accounts
for the year before the two Glasgow independents merged show that Wark
Clements lost £1.1m on sales of £12m, while Ideal World made profits of
£280,000 on sales of £9.1m.

RDF recently headhunted Stuart Murphy, controller of BBC Three, who will join in January as creative director.