Channel 4 has taken a minority stake in the sports production company part-owned by BT presenter Jake Humphrey and former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard.
Whisper Films, set up in 2010 with former BBC Sport producer Sunil Patel, has made programmes for brands related to Formula 1 including Red Bull and Shell, as well as for the BBC and ITV.
It also made the BBC1 documentary Racing with the Hamiltons: Nic in the Driving Seat, about the touring car career of Lewis Hamilton’s brother, who has cerebral palsy.
Channel 4 has made the investment, a minority stake of up to 25%, using its £20m growth fund to support the independent production sector.
“Sports production is an important part of the industry and I’m excited that we’re making our first growth fund investment in this area,” said David Abraham, chief executive of Channel 4.
The investment will by used to develop the company’s TV production arm, including hiring a new head of television and a small development team.
“I’ve always been as interested in producing great programming as presenting it,” said Humphrey, whose wife is also a director of the company. “Our new relationship with Channel 4 is the latest exciting phase of our development. Between us we are hungry to work with new people and ambitious brands to create programmes to shout about.”
Channel 4 has now made investments in a range of companies including Lightbox, the producers of Oscar-winning documentaries Man on Wire and Searching for Sugar Man, and True North, maker of MTV’s Welsh reality show The Valleys.
