Daytime brand relocating to Sheffield

18 October 2024

The broadcaster continues its commitment to popular daytime franchise Chateau DIY, and the festive spin-off series Chateau DIY at Christmas with a 2-year increased order.

Spark Media Partners created the daytime franchise in 2018 and set up a wholly owned subsidiary company, Kindling Media, to produce all the company’s chateau related content.

Chateau DIY celebrates the trials, tribulations and incredible transformations of people restoring ancient chateaux from all areas of France. Historically the main series has been commissioned as 30 hour-long episodes, but the order has been expanded to 45 episodes each series, for the next two years.

Streaming figures for Chateau DIY series 7 are up +30% series on series and the show also aired in Channel 4’s 5pm slot in 2024, securing a peak audience share of 8% and across the series averaged 622,000 audience comfortably above the 480,000 channel benchmark.

Chateau DIY at Christmas first launched in 2021. As part of the bumper recommission, the festive franchise will continue with another two, five-part series for 2024 & 2025.

 

Chateau DIY was recommissioned by Director of Commissioning for Nations and Regions, Jo Street, with senior commissioning editor for Lifestyle, Jayne Stanger, who have worked with Spark’s Chief Creative Officer, Joff Hatfield-Powell to secure the relocation of the format to be produced from their regional hub, Spark Media North. Hatfield-Powell will continue to serve as Exec Producer with Richard Park as Series Editor and Izzy Boots as Line Producer.

Hatfield-Powell relocated to Sheffield in 2020 to set up the regional arm of Spark which has so far produced 15-part daytime series, Tool Club for Channel 4 and a non-TX, fully funded primetime quiz pilot for the BBC as well as being selected as a BBC small-indie fund recipient.

 

Hatfield-Powell, who has helmed Chateau DIY since its launch and created each of its spin-offs, said “Chateau DIY is a well-loved franchise that continues to deliver on linear and streaming so I am delighted with Channel 4’s increased commitment for more and I’m extremely excited to be working with Jo and Jayne as we relocate the brand to our Northern office and continue Spark Media North’s efforts to grow and nurture non-scripted creatives in the regions”

Leeds based Stanger says “Chateau DIY continues to delight audiences and I am looking forward to working with the Spark Media North team to bring more episodes to screen over the next two years”

 

The Chateau DIY brand also includes the More 4 spin-off series Chateau DIY:Living the Dream which recently concluded its second series on the channel. The brand extension re-tells a single chateau story from the beginning to present day. Showcasing all the exceptional renovations the brave owners have attempted over the years with stunning results. Cineflix Rights is the exclusive distribution partner for all Chateau titles.

In addition Spark Media Partners are responsible for specialist factual series, Ancient Civilisations by Train with Professor Alice Roberts for C4. The first series visited Egypt at 9pm on Saturday evenings with a series average 1.1 million audience and a 7.4% share, comfortably beating the 6.3% benchmark. Series 2 explores the Ottoman Empire and launches Saturday 26th October 2024 at 9pm. The by train franchise is produced in partnership with BossaNova Media. Other titles include celebrity cooking competition Battlechefs for W and feature documentary IronMen.