UFA is one of Germany’s oldest and most distinguished entertainment brands, with an artistic heritage of films like ‘Metropolis’, ‘The Blue Angel’ and the films of German Expressionism. Today, UFA is a highly efficient group of production companies, which has continuously extended its market leadership as a film and television producer in Germany over the past few years. UFA’s programmes thrill and inspire millions of viewers every day. UFA has evolved from a creator of programmes and TV producer into a content specialist, offering a range of solutions for multimedia technologies – and for an extremely varied set of partners.

Under the UFA umbrella, eight subsidiaries operate independently in the market in a system of linked performances. Its wide-ranging product portfolio offers a unique diversity of complementary programmes.

UFA Fernsehproduktion, teamWorx and Phoenix-Film realise high-quality fiction productions such as TV movies, mini-series, series and TV events. Documentary television shows, reality programmes and shows are made by UFA Entertainment. Grundy UFA is a leading supplier of industrially produced serial dramas and telenovelas. GRUNDY Light Entertainment produces a wide range of variety, game, quiz, panel, dating, comedy, and music shows. Moreover, the company returned to the field of feature film production with UFA Cinema which was founded on 1 January 2008.

Long-running programme brands are the focus of UFA’s product strategy for our core business, the production of TV content. With 25 daily and weekly formats ‘on air’, UFA has more long-running programmes in the market than any other producer. We orientate ourselves to the needs of our clients, the TV stations, as well as their viewers and develop tailor-made programmes for every schedule slot.

We set and develop trends, but are also committed to tried-and-tested ideas and traditions. The impressive track record of top-rated successes include “Julia – Wege zum Glück” (“Julia – Roads to Happiness”), “Verliebt in Berlin” (“In Love In Berlin”), “SOKO 5113”, “SOKO Leipzig”, “Gute Zeiten – Schlechte Zeiten” (“Good Times – Bad Times”), “Alles was zählt”, “Unter uns” (“Among Us”), “Verbotene Liebe” (“Forbidden Love”), “Bella Block”, “Ein starkes Team”, “Unser Charly”, “Sag die Wahrheit”, or “Das Quiz mit Jörg Pilawa”. Outstanding TV movies, TV events and feature films like “Rose”, “Der Vulkan”, “Mogadischu” or “Die Frau vom Checkpoint Charly”, “Die Flucht”, “Das Wunder von Berlin” and “Die Gustloff” as well as adapted internationally successful light entertainment and infotainment such as “Deutschland sucht den Superstar”, “Das Supertalent” or “Bauer sucht Frau” (“The Farmer Wants a Wife”).

UFA brand communication was newly created as an addition to UFA´s production companies in August 2009. Initially, it was a business division within the UFA holding, but UFA brand communication then became UFA’s eighth label as from March 2010 and acts as a stand-alone entity. Its core offer is corporate and brand communication for TV, film and internet platforms in collaboration with the UFA’s production companies, as well as licensing.

Innovation and development of new programme concepts

Consolidating the innovative competence in programming and production techniques is one of the most important areas of operation. This led, among other things, to the founding of UFA Interactive. The goal is to direct the core competences to the market needs of a digital world. Thus, 360 degree exploitation is already a standard now for all programme brands. And this is not only about extending brands into new and other media, but also regarding the dramaturgy. Moreover, outside of the classic TV production, there are additional chances evolving for innovative programming. As a content specialist, UFA delivers professionally produced and creative original content for all of the key digital distribution channels. Together with RTL, it established the digital thematic channel Passion, produced IP TV clips for the online portals of the Gruner+Jahr magazines “Essen und Trinken” and “Eltern”. Grundy UFA produced the “PIETSHOW” for StudiVZ, a highly successful web series with over 3 million hits. In February 2009, the UFA’s casting portal “Your Chance” was launched. Numerous other ideas for new distribution channels in the digital world are currently at various stages of development.

In November 2009, the UFA Lab began its work – a support programme for young talents who are passionate about creating unusual content for the new media and want to turn their visions into reality.

UFA – a successful production company with an international dimension

UFA is the umbrella company for all of the German production activities of FremantleMedia which manages the global production of Bertelsmann’s RTL Group. UFA offers distinct advantages in its range of services and closeness to clients with its support of up-and-coming talents, qualified media and audience research, the creation and development of new programme ideas and content in all important genres, and the development of new business models through to the decentralized structure of its holding and subsidiaries. Taken overall, these factors guarantees UFA’s competitive advantage in the long term.

UFA. INSPIRING ENTERTAINMENT.

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