Montreal-based Media Ranch is expanding its reach in the U.K. and English-speaking Canada with the addition of consultants Rod Rodrigo and Owen Kelly.

The producer-distributor has also acquired two unscripted formats from Ireland and optioned two factual formats to the U.S., Canada and France.

Rodrigo will support the ramp up of Media Ranch’s U.K. business, reporting to SVP Tanja van der Goes. He has held executive positions at Mar Vista, Gaumont, Global Agency and ICM, before starting his company Serendipity Media in 2013.

Kelly, meanwhile, will oversee business development in English Canada.

Before launching his company, Antigravity Entertainment, earlier this year, Kelly handled business affairs and financing for Canadian film and TV producers as well as major Canadian studios’ film productions.

In other news, Media Ranch’s Big Love was optioned to Mustang Productions for French Canada and to 3BMG’s 3 Ball Productions for the U.S.

The format follows three couples – each unhappy with their current lifestyles – who decide to shed their “bad habits” and lose weight over the course of eight months.

Comedy on the Edge has been optioned in France by producers WeMake, with a new season set to premiere on Canadian pubcaster CBC under the adapted title Still Standing.

The Canadian series sees Jonny Harris travel across the country to discovery the “hidden humour” in small towns. After immersing himself in the lives of the local characters, Harris will deliver an original stand-up comedy routine for the whole community.

Media Ranch also announced the pickup of its format The Story Of by Truvalu Productions in the Netherlands.

Through 10 episodes, The Story Of asks life questions such as: Where do we come from? What is our shared, common past? And how did we become who we are?

Finally, format acquisitions from Adare Productions in Ireland include 12 Star Hotel – of which one season aired in 2008 on RTÉ1 Ireland – a series that sees 12 celebrities run a hotel on their own for 16 days; and The Day I Was Born On (pictured), which sees celebrities seek out the “everyday people”  whose stories made the news on the day the celebrity was born.

Two seasons of The Day I Was Born On aired on TG4 Ireland in 2014 and 2017.

Sophie Ferron, president and executive producer of Media Ranch, said in a statement: “In these uncertain times, we are grateful at Media Ranch to have been able to stay the course… Our recently new QTF slate (Quick Turnaround Formats) are high quality formats with big ideas and short prep – have proven to be timely in these challenging months since crucial once productions are back.”

This story originally appeared in Realscreen