marblemedia and Seven24 launch new distribution company
Toronto prodco marblemedia and Calgary's SEVEN24 Films have formed a new company, Distribution360, under former Joost/Alliance Atlantis VP Stéphanie Röckmann-Portier. The new distributor will be platform agnostic, and concentrate on children's, youth, drama and factual programming.
Mark Bishop, partner and executive producer at marblemedia, says he and SEVEN24 managing partner Tom Cox began conversations about the new entity last Banff. (The two also appeared together at the CRTC new media hearings last year.) It was obvious, notes Bishop, "that there was a synergy - two complementary companies that wanted to continue to produce compelling content and have it distributed on all platforms."
Bishop says Distribution360 will leverage IP on all platforms appropriate to the content, and will be as hands-on as producers need them to be. That could mean a full-service approach, offering value-adds like brand integration, interactive content creation and executive producer services (even helping producers find money they need for their projects), or it can be less hands-on. Bishop notes that producers will be able to customize to fit their needs.
He does advise, however, that creatives "try to engage in a conversation with us as early as possible. Ideally, just as they have been green lit. The earlier we are able to engage in the content, the more meaningful it can be."
Stéphanie Röckmann-Portier will take on the role of MD/head of sales for the new venture. She most recently served as VP of content partnerships for online video service Joost, and previous to that was VP of international sales and head of factual for Alliance Atlantis.
Marblemedia has several notable multi-platform productions to its credit, including This is Daniel Cook with Sinking Ship Productions and This is Emily Yeung; the first television series and website in American Sign Language, deafplanet.com; as well as Taste Buds, a kids cooking and food adventure series.
SEVEN24 Films have produced for CBC, CTV, Global, CBS, Lifetime, TNT, ABC Family, BBC, Disney Channel, Warner Brothers, Granada, Focus Features and Mandalay Television. Notable projects include Heartland, Mayerthorpe and the Academy Award-winning Brokeback Mountain.