Roadshow Films has furthered its commitment to local Australian television production by securing 50% of Blink TV, the Australian unscripted TV production company headed by Paul Clarke.
As creator and producer of a host of industry-leading, household names in TV, Paul Clarke’s string of hits include Spicks and Specks, Long Way to the Top, Bombora: The History of Australian Surfing, Wide Open Road and Whitlam: The Power and The Passion.
He has been the key creative executive of the successful Eurovision Song Contest since 2009, collaborating with production partner and Australia’s official broadcaster of the competition, SBS.
Clarke has led the negotiations of Australia’s high-profile involvement and entries in the Eurovision Song Contest, including Guy Sebastian in 2015, Dami Im in 2016 and Isaiah Firebrace in 2017. Each has made a considerable impact on the competition and ranked highly.
MORE: Blink TV director Paul Clarke on Dami Im’s Eurovision debut
In a world first, Clarke has led the exploration of the opportunity to establish the Eurovision Song Contest concept in the Asia Pacific region for SBS.
Roadshow Films co-CEO Chris Chard said: “This investment in Blink TV is consistent with our strategy of expanding our production interests beyond scripted drama, positioning the company to capitalise on the increasing importance that unscripted formats and entertainment series have with broadcasters, subscription platforms and on multichannel networks. We’ve enjoyed a strong history of success as a distributor with the brands Paul and the executive team at Blink TV have previously created and we are excited about the potential value that Blink can unlock, particularly with its impressive development slate.”
“Roadshow has had a long relationship with Paul and we are greatly excited about Blink’s potential,” said Roadshow Films Co-CEO Joel Pearlman. “Paul and his team boast outstanding production experience and we look forward to working with them to develop their strong slate in the unscripted production space.
“This complements our move into scripted production last year with Roadshow Rough Diamond, headed by legendary producer John Edwards.”
Blink’s Paul Clarke commented: “Roadshow is an Australian entertainment success story, a company with enormous integrity, capable of working at the highest level in international film and television. We are delighted to be partnering with them. Our big vision is to bring the Eurovision brand to Asia, with the support of SBS and the EBU, and Roadshow has a strong track record of successfully releasing entertainment projects through Northern Asia.”
Roadshow’s commercial manager Grahame Grassby will help lead the development of Blink TV’s series, formats and entertainment brands across the region.