Blue Ant Media is restructuring its genre teams and strengthening its senior management team following recent mergers.
The move follows Blue Ant’s recent acquisition of Thunderbird Entertainment and Boat Rocker Studios and is designed to accelerate growth across development, production and global content monetisation.
Blue Ant Studios will continue to be led by co-presidents Mark Bishop and Matt Hornburg, with the latter overseeing content strategy, development and production, and the former heading content monetisation, rights and commercial strategy. This delineation is designed to bring the creative leadership and commercial execution closer together across the studio ecosystem.
Blue Ant Studios will now be organised around genre-based centres of expertise, with Kids, Family and YA led by that unit’s president Jennifer Twiner McCarron, who will report to Hornburg. McCarron’s portfolio will encompass scripted, animation and youth-focused content. Atomic Cartoons and Jam Filled Entertainment will continue to operate under their established brands within this pillar.
McCarron’s direct reports will include Joel Bradley, president of Atomic, Lori McIndoe, president of Jam Filled, Tori Coulthart, executive vice president of production, Jam Filled, and Lindsay MacAdam, who will continue to lead and grow the scripted business on behalf of Blue Ant.
The studios’ unscripted unit will combine factual and lifestyle into a single, unified group, creating a larger unscripted centre of expertise. This revamp is designed to provide a more streamlined approach to engaging with buyers, financing content and supporting long-running and returning factual, lifestyle and documentary series.
The unscripted team will be led by Cathie James, who has taken on an expanded role as executive vice president, content, alongside Lesia Capone, who also expands her remit as executive vice president, production. Both will report to Hornburg.
Blue Ant is retiring the Great Pacific Media brand and ProperTV as part of these changes, with Great Pacific chief executive David Way leaving the company to take on advisory and consulting work.
Blue Ant Studios’ third stream will be anchored by premium entertainment label Insight Productions, with John Brunton continuing as chief executive officer, and reporting to Hornburg.
Hornburg said: “This new structure sets Blue Ant Studios up for the next phase of growth. Organising around genre-based creative leadership allows us to develop and produce more ambitious slates, move more efficiently, and better support creators and partners as we build shows and franchises designed to travel globally.”
Distribution arm Blue Ant Rights is also being expanded, with kids and family sales, licensing and consumer products across all genres added to its functions. Joining the Rights team are Richard Goldsmith, executive vice president of kids and family sales and Brands, and Vienna Downes, director of consumer products and licensing. Both will report to Bishop.
“As the scale and diversity of our portfolio continues to grow, so does the opportunity to expand how we monetise our IP,” said Bishop. “Expanding our rights, licensing and consumer products capabilities allows us to capture more value from our IP and accelerate commercial growth internationally.”