Industry

Blue Ant Media has announced a strategic repositioning of Blue Ant Studios, rolling out a genre-led operating structure, streamlined studio branding and an expanded leadership setup aimed at accelerating growth across development, production and global content monetization.

The move follows Blue Ant’s recent acquisitions of Thunderbird Entertainment and Boat Rocker Studios, which significantly broadened the company’s scale, adding new creative capabilities, talent and IP to its portfolio.

Under the new model, Blue Ant Studios will continue to be led by Co-Presidents Mark Bishop and Matt Hornburg. Hornburg will oversee content strategy, development and production, while Bishop will lead content monetization, rights and commercial strategy, bringing creative and commercial execution into closer alignment across the studio group.

Blue Ant Studios will now be organized around genre-based centres of expertise, reflecting how content is developed, financed and produced in the global marketplace.

The Kids, Family & YA division will be led by Jennifer Twiner McCarron, President, reporting to Hornburg. Her remit spans scripted, animation and youth-focused content, with Atomic Cartoons and Jam Filled Entertainment continuing to operate under their established brands within this pillar. McCarron’s direct reports include Joel Bradley, President, Atomic; Lori McIndoe, President, Jam Filled; Tori Coulthart, EVP, Production, Jam Filled; while Lindsay MacAdam will continue to lead and grow the scripted business for Blue Ant.

On the unscripted side, Blue Ant Studios is consolidating its factual and lifestyle operations into a single unified division, creating a larger and more robust unscripted centre of expertise. The new structure is designed to streamline engagement with buyers, strengthen financing strategies and support long-running and returning series across factual, lifestyle and documentary genres.

The Unscripted division will be led by Cathie James in an expanded role as Executive Vice President, Content, alongside Lesia Capone, Executive Vice President, Production. Both will report to Hornburg.
As part of the restructuring, the Great Pacific Media and ProperTV brands will be sunset. Great Pacific CEO David Way will exit the company to pursue advisory and consulting work, following more than three decades leading creative businesses.

Blue Ant Studios’ third content stream will be anchored by Insight Productions, with John Brunton continuing as CEO and reporting to Hornburg. Insight will remain focused on premium entertainment, including large-scale franchises and reality competition formats.

“This new structure sets Blue Ant Studios up for the next phase of growth,” said Hornburg. “Organizing 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.”

Alongside the studio changes, Blue Ant Media also unveiled an expansion of Blue Ant Rights, strengthening its distribution, licensing and consumer products capabilities across all genres, with a particular focus on kids and family. Richard Goldsmith joins as EVP, Kids & Family Sales and Brands, and Vienna Downes as Director, Consumer Products & Licensing. Both will report to Bishop.

Following the Thunderbird acquisition, Blue Ant has added approximately 1,100 owned hours to its catalogue, bringing its total library to more than 9,000 hours of premium content. “As the scale and diversity of our portfolio continues to grow, so does the opportunity to expand how we monetize our IP,” added Bishop. “Expanding our rights, licensing, and consumer products capabilities allows us to capture more value from our IP and accelerate commercial growth internationally.”