Zinc Network Limited

London communications company, formerly Breakthrough Media, contracting for the FCDO

Zinc Network Limited
Trade name	{{{trade_name}}}
Logo	{{{logo}}}
Type	Private limited company
Founded	Template:Start date (as Camden Creative Ltd)
Founder(s)	{{{founder}}}
Defunct	{{{defunct}}}
Headquarters	3 Orchard Place, London SW1H 0BF
Industry	Communications and video production
Services	{{{services}}}
Parent	{{{parent}}}
Subsidiaries
Revenue	{{{revenue}}}
Number of employees	92 (accounts to 31 March 2025)
Homepage	{{{homepage}}}

Zinc Network Limited is a London communications and production company. It is the same legal entity as Breakthrough Media Network Ltd, renamed on 2 March 2020. Company number 06651251 was incorporated on 21 July 2008 as Camden Creative Ltd and was called Breakthrough Media Network Ltd from 27 November 2012. Under the Breakthrough name it was the favoured contractor of the Home Office unit Research, Information and Communications Unit. Under the Zinc name, Declassified UK reported a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office contract of £9,450,000, signed in 2022, under which influencers in 22 European countries were paid to post videos that officials approved, and were barred by contract from saying so.

Company record

Status active. Type private limited company. Registered office 3 Orchard Place, London, England, SW1H 0BF. Natures of business 59112, video production activities, and 59113, television programme production activities. Last accounts made up to 31 March 2025. Next accounts, to 31 March 2026, due by 31 December 2026. Last confirmation statement dated 12 June 2026. Next statement date 12 June 2027, due by 26 June 2027.

Accounts to 31 March 2025 describe the principal activity as that of a communications and production agency, with 92 employees (89 the year before) and shareholders’ funds of £4,518,021. A United States award profile gives an address of 230 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NW, UEI FUXHH3UC1NN9.

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Names of company 06651251

Name	From	To
Camden Creative Ltd	21 July 2008	27 November 2012
Breakthrough Media Network Ltd	27 November 2012	2 March 2020
Zinc Network Limited	2 March 2020	—

A second company, also called Zinc Network Limited (number 11259840), was formed by the two then directors on 16 March 2018 and dissolved on 28 January 2020 without filing accounts. The trading name passed to company 06651251 on 2 March 2020. A supplier listing had already described Breakthrough Media as “trading as” Zinc. The name is not that of Breakthrough Communications Ltd, the 2012 incorporation name of Valent Projects Ltd (company 08119752).Companies House, VALENT PROJECTS LTD overview Companies House, accessed 5 October 2026. No filing links the two.

Directors

The officers page retrieved on 5 October 2026 listed three directors and no resignations.Companies House, ZINC NETWORK LIMITED officers Companies House, accessed 5 October 2026. All three give the registered office as their correspondence address.

Directors of Zinc Network Limited

Name	Appointed	Born	Nationality	Residence	Status
Robert Stephen Elliott	21 July 2008	September 1982	British	England	Active
Scott Wayne Brown	17 August 2012	March 1978	British	England	Active
Louis Alfred Brooke	7 February 2020	May 1987	British	United Kingdom	Active

Robert Stephen Elliott has been a director since incorporation. The Guardian described him as a former reality-television producer, and as having attended the same Essex school as Scott Brown. Scott Wayne Brown joined on 17 August 2012. He had worked for the Conservative Party from November 2003 to June 2005, then for Bell Pottinger on information operations in Baghdad, and, on a later CV, in Mogadishu and Nairobi between June 2005 and July 2007, work he described as largely classified. Louis Alfred Brooke was head of East Africa at Breakthrough Media for 15 months, then worked at the Syria Strategic Communication Advisory Team, then became managing director. He was appointed director on 7 February 2020, days before the rename.David Miller, The Radicalisation Awareness Network: Policy network in search of an evidence base or covert propaganda platform? (Bristol: Public Interest Investigations, February 2022), ISBN 978-1-912811-09-0. Brown and Elliott were also directors of Horizon PR Limited (09491072) from 30 June 2015 to 31 January 2016. That company, a joint venture with M&C Saatchi, was dissolved on 20 August 2019.Companies House, HORIZON PR LIMITED officers Companies House, accessed 5 October 2026.

Home Office and RICU

The Guardian reported in 2016 that RICU’s favoured contractor was Breakthrough Media Network Ltd, operating from an office block near Waterloo. A Breakthrough document said the objective was to “influence online conversations by being embedded within target communities via a network of moderate organisations that are supportive of it’s [sic] goals”. The paper reported £448,286 from Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism contracts in 2012–13, £5,911,719 in 2013–14, and £11.8 million from the OSCT since 2012. David Miller’s 2022 report states that Breakthrough lost the Home Office contract in April 2019. On 30 June 2026 Lord Hanson of Flint said the Home Office “no longer holds a contract with Breakthrough Media” and does not publish a unit-level breakdown of supplier payments.Lord Hanson of Flint, Answer to HL1011 UK Parliament, 30 June 2026. In 2015 the firm set up Horizon PR Limited with M&C Saatchi to place stories for civil-society groups. Journalists were not told of the RICU contract.

FCDO contract

In 2022 Zinc Network Ltd signed a contract with the Foreign Office worth £9,450,000, due to end in December 2025. The contract was not published in full. A redacted copy was released after a freedom-of-information request. The Information Commissioner’s decision of 15 July 2024 (IC-286851-M4W0) records that the FCDO had withheld a contract with Zinc Network Ltd under sections 43, 38 and 40 of the Freedom of Information Act, later disclosed a redacted version, and was ordered to release the statement of requirements and two further passages.Information Commissioner’s Office, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office ICO, decision notice 15 July 2024. The documents, as reported, tasked the firm with countering disinformation in 22 countries in central, eastern and southern Europe and the Baltics. Influencers signed agreements forbidding disclosure of government involvement. Officials “provide feedback on videos for social media” to “ensure alignment with overarching project objectives, and conflict and gender sensitivity criteria”, the government told Parliament. A former employee, quoted by Declassified UK, called the work “state propaganda”. The same article said the work included a campaign to mobilise young voters in the 2023 Slovak elections, won by Robert Fico’s Smer. The former employee called that “interference in a sovereign country’s internal affairs”. A compilation of FCDO transparency transactions lists payments to Zinc Network Limited totalling £37,209,042.78 across 307 lines, average line £121,202.09.UK Column, ZINC NETWORK LIMITED FCO Spending, accessed 5 October 2026. That is a sum of published lines, not an audited contract total. Published programme-spend compilations also name the company. Three FCO lines in 2014 total £173,500.01. Three in 2016 total £749,147.60. The 2019 compilation, repeated on the 2018 page, has 27 lines. The 2020 compilation has 44 lines, including a reversal of £71,280.53. The 2021 compilation has 48 lines, including a reversal of £390,290.46. The 2022 compilation has 16 lines, the last dated 31 May 2022.FCO Programme spending 2014FCO Programme spending 2016FCO Programme spending 2019FCO Programme spending 2020FCDO Programme spending 2021FCDO Programme spending 2022 The Home Office OSCT compilation for 2018 has ten lines to Breakthrough Media Network Ltd, the largest £325,742.53 on 21 August 2018.OSCT funding 2018

Reported totals

Source	Figure	What it is
The Guardian, 2016	£11.8 million since 2012	OSCT contracts, Breakthrough period
Declassified UK, 2025	£9,450,000	FCDO contract, 2022 to December 2025
Transparency compilation	£37,209,042.78	307 published FCDO lines

United States awards

Obligations on the USAspending profile include $573,243 in FY2015, $3,384,653 in FY2020, $2,000,000 in FY2022, $1,999,000 in FY2024 and $1,779,263 in FY2025. A secondary account describes a $9.3 million USAID grant on the information space in Georgia, a $500,000 USAID vaccination campaign in Georgia, a $500,000 State Department contract in Trinidad and Tobago, and a $1.9 million State Department grant on counter-extremism narratives in Somalia.Foundation for Freedom Online, USAID Gave $9.8 Million to UK ‘Counter-Disinfo’ Initiative Accused of Election Interference Foundation for Freedom Online, 14 August 2025.

See also

Breakthrough Media Network Horizon PR Research, Information and Communications Unit Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Valent Projects Open Information Partnership

External links

Zinc Network Limited at Companies House Officers Declassified UK, 16 July 2025 ICO decision IC-286851-M4W0