Granada, Carlton Form New Unit

With the merger between U.K. production companies Granada and Carlton about to close, Granada plans to compress three U.S. production units into one, said Simon Shaps, CEO of Granada Content.

The new division, dubbed Granada America, will comprise Granada Entertainment USA, Granada USA New York and Carlton America. Executives in charge of the new unit are yet to be announced.

Granada has several projects ongoing in the U.S., including MTV’s Room Raiders, TLC’s Crime Scenes Unsolved, NBC’s American Princess, and A&E’s Airline and House of Dreams. Granada also is producing a one-hour variety show pilot for Fox called Takeaway that is scheduled to be shot in the U.K. on Dec. 2.

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.