Shine Group acquires Brown Eyed Boy

Shine Group has acquired independent production firm Brown Eyed Boy, which produces comedies such as How Not to Live Your Life and Little Miss Jocelyn, in an estimated £400,000 deal.

Gary Reich, the former BBC executive who founded Brown Eyed Boy in 2002, owns 50.1% of the company, with UK firm Motive owning the remaining 49.9%.

Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine Group has completed an acquisition of the entire company, with the publicly-listed Motive reporting its earnings at £204,000 from the deal.

The amount paid to Reich, who will remain with the business as managing director following the takeover, has not been disclosed.

Murdoch, Shine's chairman and chief executive, told C21 Media: "We've made no secret of wanting to expand the group's comedy offering and could not have found someone better suited than Gary with which to do so.

"He is a bold, daring, entrepreneurial producer at the cutting edge of his profession, both domestically and internationally, and I welcome him warmly to Shine Group."

Motive has recently been seeking to sell its share in Brown Eyed Boy as it moves away from TV production towards digital terrestrial television technology.

The firm's chairman Mick Pilsworth said that he is "pleased" that the production firm has found a home at the Shine Group.

"It is a successful comedy production company with an excellent reputation in the industry for breaking and developing new comedy writer-performers," he said.

"Gary Reich is one of the best comedy producers in television and we wish him every success in the future."

Brown Eyed Boy will join Shine TV, Dragonfly, Princess Productions and Kudos in Shine's stable of UK-based production firms.