British TV industry veteran David Frank, the trailblazing former CEO of Zodiak Media, has died. He was 63.
His death was confirmed by the executive’s brother and long-time business partner, Matthew Frank, who said David died at home suddenly over the weekend. Arrangements for a funeral haven’t yet been made.
The entrepreneurial Frank was one of the international TV industry’s most innovative thinkers, and in addition to setting up production company RDF Media, he is known for pioneering The RightsXchange (or, simply, TRX) in 2015. An online marketplace for TV rights, the model has now become an industry norm, but was then ahead of its time, and received investment from the likes of Comcast-backed pay-TV operator Sky.
Born in Kenya, Frank was educated at Oxford University, where he studied law. Out of college, he worked in investment banking before moving into journalism and eventually working for the BBC as a finance reporter. In 1993, Frank set up production company RDF, which has become one of the biggest unscripted production outfits in the U.K., best known for groundbreaking formats like “Faking It” and “Wife Swap.”
When RDF was sold to Zodiak Entertainment in 2010, Frank became CEO of the new group, which was retitled as Zodiak Media Group and went on to make more strategic acquisitions until it was sold to Italian heavyweight De Agostini for £150 million ($201 million) and merged with Banijay Group. After leaving Zodiak in 2013, Frank and his brother founded Dial Square 86, through which they set up TRX.
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In January, the Frank brothers set up shop yet again, taking their knowledge of the digital marketplace and tech savvy to create Rocket Rights, a “next-generation, multi-genre distributor” that uses “technology to streamline the sales and marketing process” for producers.
