Bavaria Film GmbH is acquiring two German companies of Story House Group through its wholly owned subsidiary Bavaria Film Content GmbH. This includes 100% each of Story House Productions GmbH, Berlin, and Story House Pictures GmbH, Unterföhring.
Under the leadership of its original shareholders Carsten Oblaender, Andreas Gutzeit and Jens Afflerbach, Story House has become one of Germany’s leading factual and factual entertainment producers since its inception in 1999. Long-running series include “Terra X – A day in … ” or “The Great Food Report” with star chef Nelson Müller for ZDF, as well as “Galileo Plus” (ProSieben), “Reeperbahn privat!” (RTLzwei), “Trucker Babes” (Kabel eins) and “King of Trucks” (DMAX). Story House also produces for the digital marketplace, including the ZDF nutrition YouTube platform “ZDF besseresser”.
In the scripted space, Story House Pictures has produced the critically acclaimed drama series “Dignity” for Joyn, HBO and Amazon Prime Latin. Currently, Story House Pictures is producing the premium drama series “Sisi” for RTL and BETA.
Story House produces for all major broadcasters and platforms such as ARD, ZDF, ProSiebenSat.1, Joyn, the RTL Group, TVNOW and DMAX. In addition, Story House productions are in demand internationally with such diverse clients like Discovery, National Geographic, PBS, Channel 4 or HBO and Amazon, among others.
With the acquisition of the Story House companies, Bavaria Film is expanding into the non-scripted and factual entertainment space. Bavaria Film also secures access to Story House’s deep factual knowledge base, that offers great cross-genre programming potential. Scripted series like “Dignity” (Joyn, HBO, Amazon Latin) and “Sisi” (RTL/BETA) are notable examples of this.
Due to the demand for modern, high-quality content from broadcasters and platforms in Germany and all over the world, Bavaria Film will continue to participate in this growing market environment with this strategic acquisition of Story House. Existing production activities in scripted, entertainment and corporate fields will be complemented by this acquisition.
Dr. Christian Franckenstein, CEO Bavaria Film GmbH: “We are very pleased that our colleagues Oblaender, Gutzeit and Afflerbach place their trust in us to help continue the success story of Story House. Together with them as current and continuing managing directors, we will continue down this path. The German production market is characterised by an ongoing wave of consolidation. With this takeover, Bavaria Film is also staking a claim as an active participant in this consolidation process. We are doing everything we can to maintain our market position as one of the top 5 productions houses in Germany. The expansion of our portfolio to include the growing genres of documentary and docutainment should make us even more attractive as a content provider for our clients, broadcasters and platforms.”
Carsten Oblaender, CEO & General Manager Story House: “The inclusion of the Story House companies into Bavaria Film family is a win-win situation – strategically and in terms of content. Carlsquare was there for us at every step of the way. Their expertise and guidance was invaluable, and helped us to calmly navigate a process that many of us – company owners – easily underestimate. Mark and his team completely understood not only our priorities business-wise but also our creative vision for the future of Story House. They translated both into a winning sales strategy. We could not be happier with our decision to work with Carlsquare on this deal.”
Carlsquare acted as exklusive Financial Advisor to Story House.
