This paper discusses the different ways in which production companies established in similar ways can develop over time. It takes three Dutch private film- and television companies as cases. The research forms part of the Dutch component of a European partnership project, Success in the Film and Television Industries (SiFTI), which aims to explore and explain what characterises the organizational culture of successful film and television companies, understanding ‘successful’ to encompass critical reputation, a degree of longevity (have been operating for at least five years) and economic turnover. Film production in the Netherlands has from the beginning been organised through private enterprises; television production until the 1980s has been dominated by integrated public service organisations. Since the 1990s a large number of private production companies have been established, with varying degrees of success. Many companies are small or medium-sized, but enter in network relationships with a range of others, including with freelancers, commissioning editors, distributors and other production companies, in what has been called flexible specialisation of the film industry (Lorentzen 2009). This network organisation has a global dimension, as the most successful companies are often bought out by foreign multimedia conglomerates. Recently this was the case with Eyeworks. In this paper we compare three production companies. One company produces art-house feature films as well as fiction for children and youth. The second company produces a large range of television programmes: reality programmes and fiction as well as documentaries and game shows. The third company specialises in children’s television, educational and cultural programmes. All three companies were established in the 1990s by two persons. They are successful in terms of having survived in a competitive market since the 1990s and in terms of having received critical acclaim for their productions. Still the way they developed is very different. In ...