Televideo in talks with potential buyers having called in firm of administrators

Outside broadcast firm Televideo is in talks with potential buyers and investors having appointed administrators earlier this week.

Televideo chief executive Danielle Scivill told SVG Europe that talks were taking place with interested parties about a possible sale of the company and restructuring the business with an equity partner, and that she was optimistic that a positive outcome could be achieved.

Accountancy firm Hart Shaw was called in on Monday (21 August) with a remit to manage the affairs, business and property of Televideo, which continues to trade as a going concern.

The Sheffield, UK-based firm operates seven OB trucks plus two RF units, with some 42 members of staff. It has unsecured debts of around £1m.

Scivill said: “We hope to have some positive news within the next week or 10 days. People hear the word ‘administration’ and understandably jump to the worst conclusion but as a company we, and all of our staff, remain very optimistic.

“It’s been an unfortunate turn of events, in large part caused by a winding up order from HMRC Covid loans, which is a different battle that we’re fighting because we don’t feel that was properly handled and has led to us having to go into administration in order to safeguard the business.

“It’s not where we want to be, but [administration] is a stepping stone for us to save everything that we’ve worked for as a company for the past 47 years.

“Apart from working alongside the administrators, it’s very much business as usual and we are operating as usual with the same staff levels; nothing’s changed from a day-to-day point of view at this moment in time.”

Televideo’s services include OB facilities, streaming, satellite uplink services, flypacks, remote production, post production and graphics.

Recent projects including Scottish football for Viaplay, the Wheelchair Rugby World Cup 2022, boxing on Channel 5 for Sunset+Vine, Eurovision Song Contest for eOne and BBC Studios and world feed OB facilities for the Brit Awards. Other clients also include Sky Sports, BT Sport, Channel 4, Eurosport and Channel 5.