FremantleMedia has bought a majority stake in @radical.media, an innovator in the growing field of branded entertainment — the business of incorporating brands and products into the plots of entertainment content like movies, TV shows and video games. FremantleMedia is the production arm of the RTL Group unit of the media giant Bertelsmann.
The deal was announced on Monday at the opening of the 2010 Mipcom programming trade show in Cannes, France. It was one of several deals in the media, marketing and advertising realms that were made public in the last couple of days, offering an echo of the “Merger Monday” mania that has returned in recent weeks after a slowdown during the recession.
Among the branded entertainment programs that have been created and produced by @radical.media are “Iconoclasts,” a series on the Sundance Channel, sponsored by Grey Goose vodka, and “The Gamekillers,”
a series on MTV, sponsored by the Axe line
of men’s grooming products sold by Unilever.
The agency @radical.media was also involved in the pilot episode of “Mad Men” before the series was sold to AMC. The agency had the idea of incorporating on a continuing basis actual brands and products
into plot lines of the show, which is about advertising in the 1960s; when that was deemed not feasible, @radical.media bowed out of “Mad Men” and was replaced by Lionsgate.
Fremantle operates in 22 countries and is known for programs like the “Idol” musical talent shows, among them “American Idol” and “Pop Idol”; the “Got Talent” series, among them “America’s Got Talent”; “The X Factor,” a talent competition that is coming to the United States with Simon Cowell in fall 2011; and game shows like “The Price Is Right” and “Family Feud.”
Fremantle also holds the rights to the Goodson-Todman archive of game shows and quiz shows, so the company’s name would be familiar to viewers of reruns of vintage series like “What’s My Line?” and “I’ve Got a Secret.”
Fremantle is taking a 60 percent stake in @radical.media, for undisclosed financial terms. The two have already been working together on branded entertainment projects as @radical.media collaborates with a Fremantle
unit, FremantleMedia Enterprises, that specializes in branded content.
“We got to know them quite well,” Jon Kamen, chairman and chief executive of @radical.media, said in a telephone interview
on Monday afternoon from Cannes.
He will remain in those posts, he said, and Frank Scherma will continue as president of @radical.media, which will operate as an autonomous unit of Fremantle.
A financial partner in @radical.media, Lexington Ventures, is being bought out, Mr. Kamen said.
The deal will offer @radical.media “that added capability of distribution,” Mr. Kamen said, which has
“always been a missing link” for the agency.
“A couple companies pursued me over the years,” he added, primarily in the advertising business, but “we felt they were not appropriate because of conflicts.”
Fremantle “is not in the business of advertising,” he added, but is intimately familiar with it, making Fremantle “a great partner as our business is growing.”
@radical.media is based in New York and also has offices in Berlin, Los Angeles, Shanghai and Sydney. Fremantle is based in London.
Among the other deals in recent days, Maritz Research in St. Louis, a unit of Maritz Holdings, announced on Monday that it would acquire evolve24, also in St. Louis, which uses social media to measure for businesses
attitudes among consumers in areas like reputation and perception. Financial terms were not disclosed.
And on Friday, mtvU, part of the MTV Networks unit of Viacom, sold the College Media Network, which provides a software platform for college and university newspapers
to manage content, to a private investment firm. The identity of the firm, and the terms, were not disclosed.
College Media will be managed by the Access Networks Company in New York, which owns, among other properties, BlackBook Media.