Industry

STV Studios today announces the addition of a new label to its portfolio, factual entertainment producer, Barefaced TV.

Founded by Rosie Bray and Lucy Golding in 2017, Barefaced TV has already built a reputation for original and surprising content. Their most recent production is Channel 4’s Naked Beach, an ambitious format which was one of Channel 4’s top ten new factual entertainment 8pm series launches in 2019 and has sold well internationally, including a US option and a German remake.

Rosie and Lucy are the team behind BBC Three’s Snog Marry Avoid, where the pair first met. Prior to forming Barefaced TV, they created BBC2’s Restaurant Wars and Channel 4’s The Millionaire Party Planner. They then became joint heads of factual entertainment at NBCUniversal’s development unit, where they worked with now STV Studios MD, David Mortimer, in his role as SVP in charge of NBCU’s international unscripted group of companies.

Before joining STV Studios, Barefaced TV was a label within Independent production group, Argonon Ltd.

Today’s announcement follows the rebranding of STV Studios last month to reflect the evolution of the production business over the past two years, which is now home to seven labels. Earlier this year, STV Studios took a minority share in high-end drama company, Two Cities; and in 2019 acquired a majority stake in entertainment specialists, Primal Media. STV also has a creative partnership with esteemed drama producer, Elaine Collins and her company, Tod Productions.

These creative talent partnerships complement the STV Studios in-house labels: STV Studios Drama, headed up by Creative Director, Sarah Brown; STV Studios Factual, with Creative Director, Craig Hunter and STV Studios Entertainment, run by Creative Director, Gary Chippington.

David Mortimer, Managing Director of STV Studios, said: “Rosie and Lucy are hugely talented with a real flair for creating funny, warm and uplifting TV formats with huge international appeal. They share our values and ambitions, and the work they do complements our other labels perfectly. I’m very excited about the future for Barefaced TV and I look forward to working with them.”

Rosie Bray, co-founder of Barefaced TV, said: “We are so excited to be joining STV Studios. The wealth of talent and experience within the group opens up huge opportunities for our small but ambitious label and we cannot wait to begin our new partnership."

Lucy Golding, co-founder of Barefaced TV added: “We’re hugely passionate about creating entertaining formats with universal themes and international appeal. Joining the incredible stable of talent at STV Studios will give us the scope to broaden our offering and draw on their wide-ranging scale and expertise.”