Jennifer Harkness is appointed as Senior Vice President of Unscripted Content, Blue Ant Studios
(Toronto, ON – Sept. 16, 2019) – Blue Ant Studios is pleased to announce the appointment of L.A.-based Jennifer Harkness to SVP of Unscripted Content. In her newly created role, Harkness’s key focus is developing, selling, and producing unscripted series for the US and global markets.
“Bringing on board an executive of Jennifer’s caliber reflects our commitment to creating and selling premium unscripted programming for the U.S. market and abroad,” said Sam Sniderman, EVP of Global Production, Blue Ant Media. “She has a keen eye for the contemporary market, passion for compelling stories and brings with her a wealth of high-level relationships with buyers in L.A. and New York.”
Effectively immediately, Harkness joins the L.A. office and will be working alongside Dan Lubetkin, SVP of Scripted Content. These two senior roles strategically position Blue Ant Studios to increase development and production of premium projects with American-based partners and platforms in both unscripted and scripted genres.
“The growing appetite for new, premium content combined with Blue Ant’s commitment to investing in top-tier productions is the perfect opportunity to develop exciting new projects,” says Jennifer Harkness, SVP Unscripted, Blue Ant Studios.
Previously, Harkness served as Senior Vice President of Sales & Development USA for Cream Productions (Dictator’s Playbook, Fear Thy Neighbor). In this role, she focused on sales and development of original unscripted programming for US broadcasters and networks as well as creating production partnerships and supporting Cream’s push into digital and virtual reality.
Harkness joined Cream from Jumpwire Media, the social media agency she co-founded. Prior to Jumpwire, she served as Head of Development Factual Entertainment for Temple Street Productions where she developed and produced series such as Recipe to Riches (Food Network Canada, Global) and the competitive music show Cover Me Canada (CBC). At Cream, she developed a variety of projects including an unannounced series with CNN, for which she also serves as co-executive producer.
An industry veteran with over 20 years of television and film experience, she has also held key positions such as Executive Director for the Banff World Television Festival and Production Executive for Canada’s Global Television Network.
Blue Ant Media is an international producer, distributor, channel operator, and gaming video content company. We own and operate numerous production companies in North America, the UK, and Australasia under the Blue Ant Studios banner, creating content for broadcasters and streaming platforms in multiple genres including factual entertainment, natural history, documentary, adult animation, and drama. Our distribution business, Blue Ant International, offers a substantial catalogue of content, including one of the world’s largest 4K natural history offerings. Blue Ant Media operates linear, AVOD, and SVOD channels on multiple continents under 14 brands including Love Nature, Smithsonian Channel Canada, BBC Earth (Canada), ZooMoo, Arcade Cloud and more. Omnia Media, our gaming video content company, has the largest gamer talent network in the world. It creates and distributes gaming video content and podcast shows across digital and OTT platforms such as YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook, and more. Blue Ant Media is headquartered in Toronto, with nine international offices in Los Angeles, Singapore, Auckland, Dunedin, London, Washington DC, Sydney, Beijing, and Taipei.
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