UFA – a leading German production company owned by Fremantle – is expanding its activities in Hungary.
Previously known as UFA Magyarország, the production subsidiary is now called UFA Produkció and has two new Co-Managing Directors: Emese Ács and Ute Biernat, who will take on the role in addition to her position as Managing Director of UFA Show & Factual in Germany.
UFA Produkció will focus on the production of non-fiction entertainment formats and intends to diversify in-house development of these in the future. At the same time, UFA Produkció will also open up to international co-operation beyond the domestic market with the aim of offering a production hub in Hungary for international partners.
Sascha Schwingel, CEO UFA, commented: “Our goal is to grow further with UFA. To this end, we are building on our existing strengths in both creative and production areas. Following the recent foundation of UFA Mitte and the concomitant expansion of our activities in central Germany, we are now also setting the course for growth in Hungary. I am delighted that Emese Ács, a well-connected and experienced local expert, and Ute Biernat, who most recently played a key role in driving the growth of our Hungarian production subsidiary, will be taking on this new role together as a strong duo. I wish them both every success in their new or additional roles.”
Emese Ács, Managing Director of UFA Produkció, stated: “Our shows have had a solid foothold on the Hungarian market for many years and we now produce for all the private broadcasters. With our new strategic focus on non-fiction formats, we now intend to pay particular attention to developing our own ideas and formats in addition to the Fremantle catalogue.”
Ute Biernat, Managing Director of UFA Produkció and CEO of the German UFA Show & Factual GmbH, added: “In UFA Produkció, we are creating a production hub in Hungary for entertainment productions, through which we can offer high-quality and cost-efficient production solutions far beyond the borders of Hungary itself. The expansion and renaming of the company is the logical continuation of our strategy, based on which we have already been successful on the Hungarian market for nine years.”
The history of UFA Produkció, formerly UFA Magyarország, dates back to 1997, when its first Hungarian daily series, Barátok közt, was produced for commercial television. It later became the most successful and longest-running series on Hungarian television. In 2015, UFA Show & Factual successfully set up a division for non-fiction content. Since then, a total of 16 entertainment programmes have been produced in Hungary, including game shows, reality series and major entertainment shows such as The X-Factor, The Voice and The Masked Singer. Since the Show division was founded, more than 800 hours have been produced in Hungary.
In 2024, UFA Produkció produced seven shows for RTL Hungary, the TV2 Group and Antenna Entertainment: The Apprentice (Season 2) for RTL, Password (Season 1) for TV2, Farmer Wants A Wife (Season 7) for RTL, Hole in the Wall! (Season 2) for RTL, The Masked Singer (Season 4) for RTL, The X-Factor (Season 12) for RTL and Hit the road (Season 1) for Viasat3.
