Herbert L. Kloiber, former managing director of Tele München Group, has launched a new media venture focusing on European film and series projects.
Munich-based Night Train Media is looking to develop, co-produce, finance and distribute in-house and third-party projects.
Speaking to Variety, Kloiber said it was the ideal time to launch the company “in this current golden age of television.” He is also keen to work with German broadcasters like ARD, ZDF, ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL.
“The broadcasters now all have non-linear streaming services (such as) Mediathek, Joyn and TV Now growing into that space and they are great partners for setting up shows between European broadcasters and then allowing my company still to participate on the international distribution side rather than giving all the rights to one player worldwide,” he said.
That doesn’t mean, however, that Night Train Productions won’t stream on other platforms, he added. “But I will certainly make use of my relationship with all the individual broadcasters.”
Kloiber will focus more on TV productions, noting that a rough ratio of TV series to feature films is 70 to 30.
Night Train has already entered a content partnership agreement with leading Nordic entertainment company NENT Group with the aim of jointly developing and producing a select number of English-language productions every year, to which NENT Group will hold the rights to show first on its Viaplay streaming service in the Nordic region.
Night Train also plans to draw on its “extensive network of international and local producers, talent, distributors and content platforms.”
Kloiber is looking at both developing projects and working on third-party productions, offering debt financing and distribution assistance via pre-sales. The company describes itself as “an experienced and flexible European partner throughout the content value chain at a time of rapidly expanding demand for distinctive local and international content.”
Night Train is currently building its executive team and plans to announce its first projects shortly.
While at Tele München, Kloiber served as executive producer on such high-end series as “The Name of the Rose,” “The Professionals” “Hidden” and “Sanctuary.”
Global investment firm KKR acquired Tele München last year and has since integrated it into the Leonine entertainment group.