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The Weinstein Company could let its TV unit loose. The growing division of the Oscar-bait film company is being eyed as a potential spinoff — one that could be taken public or sold to another entertainment company.
“It’s not about needing anything,” Harvey Weinstein told The New York Times on Wednesday. “If anything, we’re in the best financial shape of our lives.”
The co-chairman has seen his TV division really increase its output of late. After the initial successes of reality fare such as Project Runway and the Mob Wives franchise, the independent studio is now making moves into scripted programming with Netflix’s Marco Polo and WGN America’s The Ten Commandments miniseries.
The Weinstein Company’s TV efforts are currently headed up by Meryl Poster, and the expansion outside of reality goes beyond just scripted. Weinstein recently acquired the North American rights to popular BBC talker The Graham Norton Show, per The Times, which airs stateside on BBC America.
Giant media companies, of course, have been buying up smaller TV production houses in recent years — ITV’s $360 million bid for a controlling stake in Pawn Stars maker Leftfield Entertainment Group, FremantleMedia’s smaller play for SallyAnn Salsano’s 495 Prods. and Tinopolis Group’s acquisition of Magical Elves being some of the more notable.
Founded in 2005, the Weinstein Company remains privately owned.
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