Zinc Media Group plc (LON:ZIN), the award-winning television, brand and audio production group, has announced that the Group has won its largest ever television commission in a two year deal worth £7.3 million.
Channel 5 has commissioned Zinc’s popular factual television label Red Sauce to produce 136 hours of the hit show Bargain Loving Brits. This multi-series commission, which will be broadcast in 2023 and 2024, is a material increase on Zinc’s previous largest ever volume order of 54 episodes secured in September 2021 which was viewed by a cumulative audience of over 22 million. £5m of the revenue is expected to be recognised in 2023, with the remainder in 2024.
The two year deal comprises 120 hour-long episodes to be broadast during the daytime and a further 16 hours for broadcast during peak time evenings. The highly rating series will continue to be produced from the Group’s Manchester production base.
Bargain Loving Brits (“BLB”) charts the lives of the Brits who have swapped life in the UK for a new life in Spain. Covering a cross section of ex-pats, these new series will continue to tell the stories of the much-loved characters from previous BLB series.
Red Sauce is the home of factual entertainment within Zinc’s TV production powerhouse of six television production companies. It is led by former Producer and Commissioning Editor in BBC Factual, Tom Edwards, whose credits include, as Showrunner, Mary Queen of Shops (Optomen for BBC Two), The Undercover Princes (Objective North for BBC Three and BBC One) and Wife Swap (RDF for Channel 4).
This contract follows a number of recent and notable new productions. Last week, Zinc’s audio and podcasting business launched its first direct to market advertiser funded podcast Tony Robinson’s Cunningcast, which went straight into the Apple Top 20 podcast chart. Earlier this year, the Group made global headlines with its latest documentary, produced by Brook Lapping, Putin vs The West, which remains one of the most watched programmes on BBC iPlayer. At the start of March, the Group announced Bowelbabe: in her own words, which details the last extraordinary five years of cancer campaigner Dame Deborah James’ life on film, which is due to be broadcast by the BBC later this year.
Mark Browning, Zinc Media Chief Executive Officer, commented:
“This commission represents another milestone for Zinc and is illustrative of the momentum building inside this Group. Not only is it our biggest ever commercial contract but it is an enormous creative and logistical effort. It is testament to Zinc’s market leading capabilities, creative firepower and technical infrastructure that we can support a commission of this volume, coming off the back of other notable new commissions in 2023”.
