Broadcast interview: Paul Sowerbutts and Roy Ackerman

22 November 2007

Since being snapped up by Zodiak last year, Diverse has become just that, setting up indies away from its factual base. Two unexpected words spring from Roy Ackerman's lips during his conversation with Broadcast: "Think Gladiators."

Diverse's creative director, a documentary-maker whose credits include the award-winning indictment of the US war machine Why We Fight, is enthused about a "shiny floor" Saturday night pilot he has pitched to a network broadcaster.

"It's very un-Diverse," he concedes of the show, which has been developed by Matt Paice, the man behind Sky's Brainiac, who joined Diverse two years ago to expand its entertainment slate.

The pilot is a sign of a renewed confidence at Diverse since coming under the wing of Scandinavian super-indie Zodiak Television, a move that has helped it live up to its name. "I'm eclectic in my tastes and can get bored quickly," says Ackerman (left), who, together with managing director Paul Sowerbutts (right), is keen to change perceptions of the indie as a specialist in documentaries and factual entertainment.

This week sees the first of three deals planned for the next year, in which Zodiak will raid Ackerman and Sowerbutts' contacts books to find frustrated creatives looking to branch out on their own, giving funding for Diverse to help start up indies in a broad range of genres.

In its first signing, Diverse has wooed You Are What You Eat creator and former Celador head of development Damon Pattison away from Fox TV Studios UK to launch an entertainment-focused indie. It will become a branded division of Zodiak, which is guaranteeing at least two years' worth of funds to get it off the ground. Drama and comedy are on the wish list for future investments, with a possible digital start-up mooted at some point in the future.

Investment in talent, rather than outright acquisition, is becoming something of a trend in the UK following Fremantle's launch of a L28m global talent fund last month, which has already resulted in three UK deals through Talkback Thames. Meanwhile, RDF has taken a stake in Blast Films through its RDF Ignite investment fund.

Sowerbutts says such deals, along with Zodiak's purchase of UK production and distribution company Bullseye, are a way of navigating the UK's "fevered marketplace" where out-and-out purchases have become more expensive. "Outside the UK, the indie production sector is greeted with bemusement, as there's nowhere else where there's this amount of activity," he says. "Everyone's up for sale - you could start an indie tomorrow and sell it within a year. But Zodiak wants Diverse and Bullseye at the centre with start-up companies around us."

After a turbulent couple of years, characterised by a strained relationship with former owner FBC and the headline-grabbing departure of director of programmes Narinder Minhas in 2005, Diverse has wasted little time under its new owners in setting out its stall. This autumn, TLC director of development Ed Crick came on board as vice-president of production and development, while C4 current affairs editor Mark Roberts became executive producer, factual.

Ackerman says the hires have freed him to focus on the bigger job of creative direction and to indulge his preferred genres as a producer, namely as an arts specialist, factual and documentaries. Meanwhile, Sowerbutts has added the role of vice-president, west to his remit, putting him in charge of Zodiak's UK ambitions and a planned push into the US next year, where Diverse already has a presence.

Sowerbutts says he wants to challenge the "Anglo-Saxon arrogance" that the best ideas come from the UK and US. "We're currently looking at five ideas that have originated within the group for the UK, including a Russian show whose name translates as To Understand and Forgive an unusual psychological drama based on real events."

Rather than dilute Diverse's independence, Ackerman and Sowerbutts see the new ownership as a means to protect its competitive and creative strengths. Indeed, due to the breadth of genres it now finds itself in, mainstream entertainment formats can effectively bankroll more "personal passion" projects.

"We started out as a free-spirited indie and that spirit has not gone," says Ackerman." We're very much tied into Zodiak's ethos of 'think global, act local'. There's a lot of sense being together in the 'fewer, bigger, better' world envisaged by the likes of Mark Thompson."

Ackerman believes that in the hunt for true 360-degree commissioning, the role of the "real world" beyond TV and new media is often overlooked. "We made Last Chance Kids for Channel 4's Lost for Words season on child literacy, which started out with one or two little docs," he says. "Then Richard and Judy got involved, and suddenly it was a campaign and all over the libraries. It's about making an impact in a very complicated world.

"Indies often lose out because they're too focused on intellectual property. As we move into a multimedia age, this sort of visibility helps you get an audience and these sorts of partnerships foster trust."

And trust is what Sowerbutts hopes Diverse can offer to the start-ups Zodiak is investing in. "Creativity is a very complex business. Hollywood's 'nobody knows anything' ethos is relevant to TV in the UK. We're very sensitive to what creative individuals are like and we're aware that people often have their individuality challenged. We're now trying to create an entity that isn't just about organic growth."

Fact file

Established: 1982, by David Graham and Peter Danebaur

Locations: London, Bristol, the US

Owner: Swedish super-indie Zodiak Television. Previously owned by Italian company Fact Based Communications

Ethos: Eclectic, with a reputation built largely on factual and factual ent, with a strong emphasis on multicultural aprogramming

Key commissions: Operatunity (2002, C4); Darcus Howe's Who You Callin' a Nigger? (2004, C4); Why We Fight (2005, BBC4)

Author: Robin Parker