Future plc, the global platform for specialist media, announced that Barcroft Studios, the leading factual content business it acquired in December 2019, has now rebranded as Future Studios and revealed two team promotions following a strong period of growth.

Al Brown, becomes Vice President of Future Studios and is responsible for overseeing internal development and commissioning and distribution. Al previously oversaw Barcroft’s factual output for Channel 4’s True Stories brand as Executive Producer, reporting to Chief Creative Officer John Farrar.

Brown previously spent over a decade at Vice UK, joining in 2008. He was a member of the team responsible for launching linear pay-TV channel Viceland, online channel Vice News and was vice president of programming for Vice Studios, with responsibility for the UK division.

And Ellie Winstanley has been appointed Junior Executive Producer at Future Studios. Ellie has been Series Producer on many of the company’s most successful series for Snapchat and Channel 4 and will have responsibility for external digital commissions on Snapchat and YouTube and Facebook output.

The award-winning production business, led by Chief Creative Officer John Farrar, has enjoyed a sustained period of growth in both linear production and digital since being integrated into the Future business. It has been commissioned by Channel 4 to co-produce the reboot of classic TV show GamesMaster, the Future PLC brand set to make a return to E4 and social channels later this year, in partnership with Oculus Quest 2 from Facebook.

And following the success of ‘Totally Game’, the original short form documentary series Barcroft produced in collaboration with Future’s games division, the company is in production on three new ‘Future Originals’ – an anthology gaming series, a factual series focusing on the paranormal and a new true crime strand, in partnership with Future plc brand Marie Claire.

“With several new series in production for our terrestrial, cable and digital clients as well as exciting new projects in development from across Future’s incredible portfolio of media brands including our GamesMaster reboot, we felt it’s a natural next step to rename the business Future Studios as we look ahead to the next phase of our growth” Future Studios Chief Creative Officer John Farrar.

In addition to a range of projects currently in development and production for linear broadcasters around the world, Future Studios produces over 50 short-form episodes per month across its various social media channels and recently launched ‘Transformed’ and ‘Dating Different’, two original formats with episodes regularly receiving over 10 million views across social channels. The business has also become established as one of the UK’s leading producers of original content for Snapchat.

Future Studios’ Truly Youtube channel continues to grow with over 490m views since January 2021 and 3.2 billion minutes viewed on Facebook in the same period.*