WTFN Merges Fred Media & Digital Arm Radar To Form Studios Business

EXCLUSIVE: Australian producer WTFN Group has pulled together TV distribution arm Fred Media and digital division Radar to form an integrated studios operations.

The new unit will be called Radar Studios, replacing both Fred and Radar when it debuts at MIPCOM Cannes next month. Derek Dyson, WTFN’s Chief Commercial Officer, will lead the unit.

Radar Studios comprise a FAST and digital channels business, an in-house and third-party distribution arm and a content division that includes acquiring third-party content, funding, development and creation of originals for the other segments.

Working under Dyson at Radar Studios will be Jamie I, who joined Fred Media last year as APAC sales manager. He will become APAC Sales & Acquisitions Lead, while longtime consultant Kate Llewellyn-Jones will continue her remit to find, create and fund content and partnerships, only now focusing on the Radar Studios business.

Like many independent production houses, WTFN has opted for an integrated production and sales arm, as the market shifts continues to shift in favor of companies with deep catalogs and IP. Just yesterday, we revealed another Australian producer, WildBear Entertainment, had set a new-look management team as a response to market changes.

“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,” said WTFN’s Dyson. “We will continue to maximise 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.

“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.”

To this point, WTFN has followed what it calls a ‘total distribution’ model, which was focused on monetizing content across all revenue streams.

“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,” said Dyson. “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.”

In 2024, we revealed WTFN was exploring a sale, but the company stayed independent and is now set up with its studios arm.