BBC Studios Productions, a unit of BBC Studios, has boosted its investment in Mothership TV, the unscripted production firm founded by former Channel 4 deputy director of programs Kelly Webb-Lamb, to take full ownership of the company.
In late 2022, BBC Studios Productions had taken a 25 percent stake in the company.
The transaction unveiled on Thursday marks the second deal for an unscripted indie by the unit of the commercial arm of the BBC following its acquisition of Voltage TV (Amanda and Alan, Tempting Fortune) in 2022. Mothership will be part of BBC Studios’ newly announced Unscripted Productions, led by Kate Ward, managing director, Unscripted Productions.
Financial details weren’t disclosed. Under the terms of the deal. BBC Studios will have first-look global distribution and format rights to Mothership’s output.
Mothership launched in 2022 to make “entertaining, warm and witty unscripted formats of scale.” Currently in production by it is Secret Genius, a new competition format for Channel 4 in which “Alan Carr and Susie Dent will test Britain’s brainpower like never before to uncover the country’s most gifted and unsung minds.” Mothership has also produced Around The World in 80 Weighs and Sandi’s Great British Woodland Restoration for Channel 4, with “a raft of new programs in development.”
Said Webb-Lamb: “What matters most to me is being able to make great telly with great people and I’ve really enjoyed and valued Mothership’s relationship with BBC Studios over the past three years. I’m looking forward to deepening this relationship going forward.”
Added Ward: “As demand for unscripted formats continues to grow both in the U.K. and around the world, we are thrilled to be strengthening our successful partnership with Kelly and Mothership and look forward to a very exciting future.”
BBC Studios Productions also houses six scripted labels, namely Lookout Point (Gentleman Jack, Happy Valley 3), Baby Cow Productions (Brian and Margaret, Changing Ends), House Productions (Conclave, Sherwood), Clerkenwell Films (Baby Reindeer, The End of the F**king World) Sid Gentle Films (Killing Eve, Rain Dog) and Firebird (Wild Cherry, Outrageous). It also holds minority investments in a five others, namely Various Artists Limited, Expectation Entertainment, Turbine and Boffola Pictures.
