Australia’s WTFN Group is merging its digital business, Radar, with its content distribution arm, Fred Media, under Radar Studios, which will make its official debut at MIPCOM.
Radar Studios will be organized around three pillars: a slate of FAST and digital channels, among them Bondi Vet; distribution, encompassing in-house and third-party fare; and content, via third-party acquisitions and new originals.
Derek Dyson, chief commercial officer, will lead Radar Studios, overseeing a team that includes Jamie I as APAC sales and acquisitions lead, and longtime consultant Kate Llewellyn-Jones, leading the charge to find new content and partnerships across the business.
“Content supply is one of the major challenges in our business today, so we’ve developed Radar Studios to reduce potential risk and help provide a pipeline for a more sustainable model,” Dyson said. “We will continue to maximize the enviable legacy IP that we have in the business—most fully owned by WTFN—and have also recently established a new fund to invest in and acquire high-quality third-party content.”
Dyson continued, “But I am most excited about our new originals strategy and the chance to work closely with WTFN’s recently appointed head of development, Michael McDermott, and highly respected chief creative officer, Steve Oemcke. Together, we will use data, trends and market intel that we gather to create new content for a range of global channels and platforms. And we’re thrilled that we already have some game-changing concepts in development.”
Dyson concluded: “For a while, we have successfully operated with a total distribution strategy, aligning the Radar and Fred Media teams to ensure no rights were left on the shelf. However, creating Radar Studios brings full integration and simplifies that message to the market, removing any ambiguity over entry points to our business. We cannot wait to introduce Radar Studios to our existing and potential new partners in Cannes next month and are excited that this re-brand and re-structure puts the building blocks in place to help turbo-charge and support our ambitions for growth.”
