Veteran TV boss David Frank raises £30m to fund takeovers
Former Zodiak Media boss David Frank has signed his first acquisition as part of the launch of his new media investment vehicle Dial Square 86.
Frank is currently raising between £20m and £30m to fund the takeover of a number of target content businesses as he looks to build “a content group of the future”.
“What I’m interested in doing now is finding those businesses that are the genuine content businesses of tomorrow… entrepreneurs in the content space who are embracing the changes and building a group that you might describe as a super indie,” Frank told City A.M.
Last week Frank’s management team at Dial Square 86, which includes former ITV director of programmes Nigel Pickard and former operations chief of HIT Entertainment Charlie Caminada, closed its first deal for Red Hare Digital, which manages beauty and fashion talent for YouTube channels.
“We’re seeing a rapid consolidation of the traditional content businesses.. and it’s kind of creating a vacuum where there isn’t a big aggregator of smaller content companies,” added Frank, who is looking to position Dial Square 86 as such an aggregator.
Dial Square is understood be in advanced talks across a number of later-stage deals.
These include a US cable producer with sales of around $50m (£31m), a UK-based tech firm in the interactive TV space with an estimated value of around £5m, and a UK programme distribution firm worth around £10m.