Stranger Than Fiction
We’re in Moscow in 1975, it’s the height of the Cold War and an American woman has been tasked by the CIA to help obtain information from a Soviet double agent. Sounds like a good movie, doesn’t it? Even better. It’s reality. This is the story of Martha (Marti) Peterson who was the subject of the documentary series Declassified: Untold Stories of American Spies for the first episode on CNN (Hinds, 2016).
The series examines America’s covert operations all over the world spanning different decades. (de Moraes, 2015). When asked about the show in an interview Mike Rogers, who hosts the show said, “I love the balance between a Hollywood approach and the real-life approach. I like it all…” (Hinds, 2016). These approaches he mentions help create this fascination with reality television that audiences have all over the world, but who or what are the creative forces behind shows like Declassified? Usually for any television show, a network has a “creative development” department. Pete Richie, who serves as co-producer of Declassified and a freelancer for All3media America talked about the creative development process. Ritchie said, “most networks farm out the production of their television series to independent production companies”. (personal communication, September 12th, 2017).
However, do the executive producers in-house come up with the content? Ritchie explained that once you know the story, you are free to come up with the content. Who you give it to is totally based on the connections you have (personal communication, September 12th, 2017). How All3media America works with other networks, Ritchie compared the All3media as contractors. “They say build me a house, they give us specific instructions, but if they don’t like the house we’ve built. It’s up to us to change it to fit what they want” (personal communication, September 12th, 2017).
All3media America Overview
The production company All3media America is behind Declassified and other unscripted television shows. It is the US subsidiary for the UK hub All3media in London, United Kingdom. As it lists on its “about” page (2016), All3media formed after the company acquired Chrysalis Group’s TV division in the year 2003 (“About”, 2016). Led by co-founders Steve Morrison, David Liddiment, John Pfiel and Jules Bern, All3media has about eighteen leading production companies and located in the US, The Netherlands, Germany and New Zealand (“About”, 2016). It creates scripted to unscripted shows, film to television dramas, documentaries, and live campaigns for other companies. According to Bloomberg.com (2017), It is led by CEO Jane Turton. Altogether, All3media with its two hubs All3media America and All3media International have won fifty Royal Television Awards, Twenty BAFTA’s and ten Emmy’s (“About, 2016).
On All3media America’s website homepage (2016), established in December 2012, All3media America formed. Located in Los Angeles, California, All3media America serves as the hub for All3media’s American unscripted and scripted content. It is under the leadership of CEO Greg Lipstone and COO Dan Donahue (“Homepage”, 2016). The company has eighteen production companies, one of which includes Filmmaker Sam Mendes’ production company Neal Street Productions, which they acquired recently in 2015 (Barraclough, 2015. Sam Mendes is famous for his Oscar-winning film American Beauty. Neal Streets Productions produced Showtime’s Penny Dreadful (Barraclough, 2015).
Assets
On its production companies page (2016), All3media America shares ownership of some of All3media’s production companies for American viewership. They are the following: Studio Lambert, Maverick, Main Event Media, Objective Media Group (America), Lime Productions. MME Moviement, Bentle Productions, LTD, Company Pictures, Idtv, North One Television, South Pacific Pictures, Optomen, One Potato Two Potato, Little Dot Studios, Lion Television, Studio Ramsay, New Pictures and Neal Street Productions (“Production Companies”, 2016). Among these smaller production companies, All3media America owns the rights to shows that people might recognize Undercover Boss, Chrisley Knows Best, United Shades of America (also, on CNN), The UK version of Skins, among many others.
Inside All3media America (Business Model)
When you enter the “About” section of All3media’s site, the above picture appears. From researching the company, it seems its business model revolves around the content it makes. Pete Ritchie, who serves as co-executive producer of Declassified and a freelancer for All3media said this of All3media and All3media America’s business model. “[All3media’s] business model is fairly simple. All3media sells shows to networks or is hired to make shows. Networks give them X amount of dollars to make those shows” (personal communication, September 12th, 2017).
Inside All3media America (Revenue Model)
How does a big company like All3media? We obtained Discovery Communications’, 10-K form online (2015), who acquired All3media with Liberty Global in a joint venture (Lieberman & Tataglione, 2014). The form stated in 2015 that it garnered revenue from fees it charged to operators who are cable, DTH satellite and advertising sold on its networks. That same year they reported they received forty-eight, forty-seven, and five percent from distribution, advertising, etc. with another five percent represented by consumers (“Discovery Communications’ 10-K Form”, 2015). When asked about the specifics of Declassified’s budget, Pete Ritchie had this to say. “I can’t say what the budget is for Declassified, but let’s say its 100k per episode. That’s 800k in a lump sum. All3 then creates a budget to make the show and takes a chunk off the top to pay for infrastructure and development for new projects (personal communication, September 12, 2017).
Growing and Growing and Growing…
Recently, big changes have been made. Last year, All3media America decided to end its deal with ICM Partners for representation and signed on with the Creative Artist’s Agency (Andreeva, 2016). CAA represents many big names in Hollywood, from writers to directors and producers to actors.
They even represent some of the biggest international brands like Coca-Cola (“Funding Universe”, 2017). This past May All3media America had promoted Carly Becker to Vice President of Corporate Development. (Wagmeister, 2016). All3media America is proving to become, not just a big media conglomerate, but a media powerhouse.
References
About. (2016). Retrieved from www.all3media.com website: http://www.all3media.com/Content/AboutPage.html
Andreeva, N. (2016, December 16). All3media america signs with caa. Retrieved from www.deadline.com website: http://deadline.com/2016/12/all3media-america-caa- 1201872680/
Barraclough, L. (2015, March 31). All3media acquires sam mendes’ neal street. Variety.
Retrieved from http://variety.com/2015/tv/global/all3media-acquires-sam-mendes-neal-street-1201463286/
Company overview of all3media limited. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.bloomberg.com
website: https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=5426134
Creative artists agency LLC history. (2017). Retrieved from www.fundinguniverse.com website: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/creative-artists-agency-llc- history/
De Moraes, L. (2015, May 13). CNN tackles american covert ops for ‘Declassified’, gets tubular with ‘The eighties’. Retrieved from www.deadline.com website: http://deadline.com/2015/05/cnn-upfront-new-series-declassified-the-eighties-1201425526/
Hinds, J. (2016, June 18). CNN’s ‘Declassified’ opens the file on real-life spying. Detroit Free Press. Retrieved from http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/movies/julie- hinds/2016/06/18/cnn-declassified-new-series-spies-mike-rogers-congress- michigan/85990732/
Lieberman, D., & Tartaglione, N. (2014, May 8). Discovery and liberty global agree to $930 deal for
all3media. Deadline. Retrieved from http://deadline.com/2014/05/
discovery-and-liberty-global-agree-to-930m-deal-for-all3media-726731/
Production companies. (2016). Retrieved from www.all3a.com website: http://www.all3a.com/production-companies
Shows. (2016). Retrieved from www.All3a.com website: http://www.all3a.com/shows
Ritchie, P, (2017, September 12). [Personal interview by the author].
Smith, E, (2017, September 5). [Personal interview by the author]***
United states securities and exchange commission: Form 10-k. (2015uN, December 31). Retrieved from www.sec.gov website: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1437107/000143710716000059/disca-2015123110k.htm
Wagmeister, E. (2017, May 11). All3media promotes carly becker to vp of corporate development (Exclusive). Variety. Retrieved from http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/all3media-promotes-carly-becker-1202423051/
What we do/Who we are. (2016). Retrieved from www.all3a.com website: http://www.all3a.com/
***Special thanks to Syracuse University S.I Newhouse School of Public Communication Professor Evan Smith for help with development of questions for interview