Arrested Industries & Merzigo snag 3,000 hours from Spain’s RTVE

Merrily Ross & Anthony Kimble

Anthony Kimble and Merrily Ross’s firm Arrested Industries and Turkish aggregator Merzigo have struck a deal that will see them acquire almost 3,000 hours of programming from Spanish broadcaster RTVE.

Arrested Industries, which rebranded from Fugitive in April, linked up with Turkish aggregator Merzigo in 2020 to acquire programming for AVOD exploitation and the RTVE deal marks the first major agreement struck via the companies’ partnership.

Long-running, popular scripted series such as Central Market (Mercado Central) and Love In Difficult Times (Amar En Tiempos Revueltos) are among shows included in the deal, which was struck by Arrested Industries’ consultant and SVP, Charo Penedo.

Arrested’s AVOD-focused team, led by former Nordic Entertainment exec Ross, is responsible for assessing and acquiring content with available AVOD rights from around the world and then working with Merzigo’s facility in Istanbul to upload and manage the IP.

Ross said Merzigo’s experience of “monetizing a wide range of programming on different AVOD platforms” and Arrested’s “industry knowledge and network of contacts” was providing new revenue potential for rights owners.

“Our early conversations with broadcasters and other rights owners have been extremely well received and this first completed deal with RTVE is just the tip of the iceberg,” she added.

Yigit Dogan Celik, MD of Merzigo, added: “Having a new base out of London and working closely with Merrily and Anthony Kimble, we have been able to quickly create fresh, wide-ranging opportunities for our business and we are excited by the prospect of those further deals we can see in our rapidly growing pipeline.”