London/Stockholm – ITV plc has acquired Swedish independent production and programme formats business Silverback AB. The deal includes a cash consideration of £5.2million (US$10.3milliion) and a further payment of a maximum £8.8million (US$17.4million) pegged to profit performance over a three-year period. The acquisition is part of ITV’s strategy to grow its production, format creation and distribution businesses across international territories to help double global content revenues by 2012. The acquisition provides ITV exclusive international rights outside the Nordic territories to all content, formats and series developed by Silverback. Silverback’s sales team also joins ITV to operate within its sales, licensing and distribution division, ITV Worldwide. Conversely, Silverback nets the right to produce or sell ITV-owned formats in the Nordic territories, as with ITV’s other wholly-owned production assets in the US, Germany and Australia. Silverback is expected to grow its production capabilities beyond Sweden into other Scandinavian countries. ITV’s interim managing director of global content, Lee Bartlett, said, “With this deal we now have a presence in all three major territories and a growing and significant international formats business.”