COOKIE JAR ENTERTAINMENT APPOINTS JOHN MORRIS SVP, SALES & CO-PRODUCTIONS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
BURBANK, CA | Toronto, ON (March 4, 2011) - Cookie Jar Entertainment has appointed John Morris Senior Vice President of TV Sales and Co-Productions (Television, Home Video and Digital) for United Kingdom, Benelux, Australia and New Zealand. Based in Cookie Jar's London office, Morris will spearhead television sales and presales, planning and forecasting for the region. He will also lead creative development and co-productions with major British and pan European broadcasters/studios across the region. Morris will report to Jean-Michel Ciszewski, SVP International TV and Home Entertainment, on distribution; and to Tom Mazza, Head of Worldwide TV, and Toper Taylor, President and COO, on co-production/creative development.
"With 25 years of multi-media sales experience, John is an important addition to Cookie Jar's distribution department," said Taylor. "We will benefit from John's impressive industry knowledge and sales experience which will make him an extremely valuable asset to the company."
"Cookie Jar is one of the few companies able to access international funding for new content as well as having the infrastructure to effectively exploit it across all media platforms, both of which are even more crucial than ever in this period of squeezed production finance," said Morris. "I am therefore delighted to have the chance to work with them across both these areas."
Prior to joining Cookie Jar Entertainment, Morris had his own media consultancy and held executive positions at leading organizations spanning broadcast, brand development and cross-media exploitation. These positions include Managing Director at Sparrowhawk Distribution Ltd., Head of Sales & Acquisitions at sports specialist IMG, Head of Merchandising at RTL Disney GmbH, SVP/Global TV & Home Entertainment at HIT Entertainment, and various management positions at BBC Worldwide for ten years.
About Cookie Jar Entertainment
The Cookie Jar Group, founded in 2004, consists of several related global entertainment, publishing, and consumer product companies, including Cookie Jar Entertainment, a leader in the production of animated and live-action programming for children, and The Jar, which produces programming for older children, teens, and young adults. Cookie Jar participates in control of, and content creation for, Cookie Jar TV, CBS' weekend morning block of children's programming, the international children's television channel, KidsCo, as well as a premiere Web video site for kids called Jaroo.com. The Company has produced over 6,000 half-hours of high-end children's programming in over 160 countries, and its shows have been seen on numerous broadcast and cable networks in North America. Several children's entertainment industry and network television veterans manage Cookie Jar. They have worked at several of the industry's leading companies and have been deeply involved in the creation or production of memorable children's content for many years, including shows like "Caillou", "Inspector Gadget", "Arthur", "The Doodlebops", "Johnny Test", and many others. For more information, please visit www.cjar.com.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Michael Berreth/Cookie Jar Entertainment
(818) 955-5636; mberreth@cjar.com;
