Industry

Multinational content creator and producer, Asacha Media Group (AMG) today announced the acquisition of a majority stake in the UK-based production and distribution company, WAG Entertainment.

Founded in 1998, WAG Entertainment has built a multi-genre portfolio of popular science, crime, natural history and other programming for international networks such as Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Science Channel, UKTV and The Weather Channel, among others.

The company’s slate of returning shows includes “What on Earth?” for Science Channel (in production for season 7), “Weird Earth” for The Weather Channel (in production for season 2), “Combat Dealers” for Quest (in production for season 5), “Strange Evidence” for Science Channel (in production for season 3), and “War Factories” for UKTV (2 seasons to date).

Following a transition period, WAG Entertainment’s founder and CEO Martin Durkin will be stepping down at the end of 2021, handing over leadership to current COO Steven Green who will step up to become Managing Director of the company.

In his new role, Green will focus on further growing WAG Entertainment’s cross-platform slate in the UK and U.S., while expanding the business into AMG’s core European markets with factual entertainment, reality and documentary programming for TV networks and streaming platforms.

In a joint statement, Martin Durkin and Steven Green comment: “We are thrilled to have WAG Entertainment join forces with Asacha Media Group’s dynamic business at such an exciting time for factual and unscripted content. Our partnership and shared ambition will create significant opportunities for our business to expand into new markets, while further diversifying our output across genres and platforms.”

Gaspard de Chavagnac and Marina Williams, Asacha Media Group’s Co-CEOs comment: “Our partnership with WAG Entertainment adds a key new dimension to Asacha’s business, which perfectly complements our existing operations in Italy and France. In addition to expanding our presence into the UK and U.S., this will enable us to offer an exciting new line-up of multi-genre content to our platform partners across Europe.”

The transaction was brokered by specialist media advisory firm GothamStreet, with deal support provided by NOR Capital.