Established in late 2005 by Billy McGrath - ex-Commissioner of Entertainment in Irish pubcaster RTE - and experienced financial professional Gerry Kelly, SIDELINE is now one of Ireland’s top multimedia companies focused on delivering high quality factual, lifestyle, comedy and entertainment programming for the home and international market.

For Irish state broadcaster RTE, its experienced production teams has filmed complete shows and series in  the USA, Africa, the Caribbean, Australia, Ireland, the UK and all over mainland Europe. Original formats include The Model Scouts (in association with IMG Media); Hollywood Trials –10 aspiring actors move to LA; volunteer series Community Challenge and talent show Class Act.  Recently two factual series, presented by award winning journalist Dónal MacIntyre, were broadcast on Ireland’s commercial channel TV3 to widespread acclaim.  Behind Bars and Print and Be Damned explored the history of Irish prisons and newspapers respectively.

SIDELINE also re-produce large-scale shows such as Fremantle’s global successes Take Me Out & Family (Feud) Fortunes, BBC World’s Mastermind and The Great Irish Bake Off (BBCW/Love Prods) for Ireland’s No.1 commercial station TV3. Last year it also set up a new scripted arm The Comedy Division to seek new writing talent and after a period of development original Irish sitcom scripts are in the market place in Ireland, UK and USA. SIDELINE is also investing in the online market and keen to create an Irish based comedy channel for the globe.

Production wise in 2014, The Great Irish Bake Off premieres May 21^st and original series Tales of Irish Castles, June 8^th on TV3. This six part history series, hosted by award winning actor Simon Delaney (BBC’s The Fall and Roy; CBS’s The Good Wife’ and Sky’s Emmy Award winner Moone Boy), covers the history of Ireland from the 12^th century to the present day and investigates the key role that castles (mostly financed by the British crown) played across the centuries. SIDELINE’s most ambitious factual commission  , for Viacom’s Channel 5 in London, is now in production and transmits in early 2015. A co-production with Group M Entertainment, the series is hosted by historian Dan Jones and features the stories behind iconic castles such as Dover; Stirling; Warwick and The Tower of London.

At Realscreen West SIDELINE will be presenting a broad range of new formats including primetime parenting series Family Food Battle; panel show Don’t Quote Me; transformation series The Great American DIY Challenge; retro series Vintage Wars; character led series Rock’n’Roll Truckers; sporting reality series Blood, Sweat & Gears and the Downton Abbey of dating shows Date Like A Victorian –a finalist at the International Format Pitch at MIPTV 2014.  

SIDELINE Productions is represented by ICM Partners. For more information www.sideline.ie

Speaking on: Global Format Hot Spots