About SD Media — A Factual Originals Studio

Jonathan Legg on the rim of Kawah Ijen, East Java

Ijen, East Java · Road Less Traveled Jonathan Legg on the rim of Kawah Ijen, above the most acidic crater lake on earth. Below him, sulphur miners work the vents by hand and carry 75 to 90 kilos of it back up the caldera wall on their shoulders — most of them twice a day. We went for them, not the volcano.

SD Media, LLC was founded in 2011 on a simple idea: make factual programming with a point of view, and own it.

Since then our work has been commissioned, licensed or funded by Discovery, RTL Germany, HBO Max, InsightTV, Asian Food Network, Hearst, National Geographic People, Samsung TV+ and Maersk. We produce across four categories — travel, food, adventure and industrial factual — and we develop, own and license our own formats alongside the work we make for others.

We operate as a small senior team that scales through trusted local crews, working from operational bases in India and the Philippines. That structure is why we can mobilise a broadcast-standard shoot into Tangier, Tokyo or the Maldives inside a fortnight — from the region rather than from Europe — with the access a five-person unit gets and a full crew never does.

Originate & own

SD Media Originals — four in-house factual formats built to renew, with rights retained and actively exploited.

Produce & deliver

Commissioned series for international broadcasters, and field production for co-producing partners.

Fund & distribute

Brand- and destination-funded programming built to broadcast spec — and placed with a distributor. Rights are exploited across every window we hold, including the footage library.

How we work

Small unit, senior crew.

Five to six people, kit that fits the brief rather than the truck, and permits pulled in territory. This is what that looks like on the day.

The 2026 field diary →

Setting up on the Sumida, Skytree behind — **Set up on the Sumida**One operator, one tripod, a permit and a window. The engineering sequence for the Tokyo hour, shot without closing anything.

Locked off above the Bangkok tower line — **Locked off at altitude**A body, a tabletop tripod and the room a small unit is allowed into. The same package travels as hand baggage.

Recce at the Wat Pho pier — **Recce folded into the shoot**Lining up Wat Arun from the pier. We scout on production days rather than running a separate trip — one less travel cycle in the budget.

Facts & figures

The block you can forward.

Founded: 2011
Entity: SD Media, LLC — incorporated in Georgia, USA
Hours delivered: 112.5
Distribution: Global, continuously since 2011
Territories shot: 45+
Operational bases: India · Philippines — for global crew mobilisation
SD Media Originals: 112.5 hours across 4 owned formats — Maximum Foodie · Road Less Traveled · LUXE Travels · Food Unknown
Licensed by: HBO Max · Discovery · Amazon Prime Video · InsightTV · Samsung TV+ · Asian Food Network
Delivery: 4K / HDR, full broadcast specification
Cameras: Blackmagic PYXIS 12K · Sony α7R VI · Panasonic LUMIX
Glass: Full cine prime suite, plus high-end zooms
Aerial: DJI Mavic 4 Pro · long-range FPV · CineFlight heavy-lift for custom camera builds
Post: Graded in HDR throughout — Dolby Vision certified HDR masters on delivery
Typical crew: 5–6, scalable
Production partners: WildBear Entertainment · Quintus Studios · Off the Fence · InsightTV
Markets: MIPCOM · MIPTV · Realscreen · ATF

Camera, glass and aerial packages are built per project — the above is what we own and operate. Specialist bodies, lenses and rigs are sourced to the brief.

The SD Media crew aboard the Maersk Peary in pack ice, en route to McMurdo Station, Antarctica — **Antarctica · Road Less Traveled** The SD Media crew aboard the *Maersk Peary*, en route to McMurdo Station — a two-week passage from Christchurch, New Zealand, and four days on the continent to film a special for the series.

Where we shoot

45+ territories on the ground.

Bases in India and the Philippines put crew within regional reach of most of it.

Every country that appears in a delivered SD Media production. The 43 listed below are the ones reconciled against delivery paperwork so far; the remainder are being verified from earlier seasons before they go up. Not a target list — a record.