Corus Ent. today announced a new organizational structure that will allow its television and content divisions to take advantage of new content delivery platforms. Nelvana Studios is being integrated into the television division under the new kids portfolio, while Nelvana Enterprises is created as a separate business unit focused on leveraging Corus’ intellectual property internationally.
Scott Dyer has been named exec VP and general manager of the kids division reporting to Corus Television president Paul Robertson. Dyer will be responsible for overseeing YTV, Treehouse, Discovery Kids Canada and Nelvana Studios. In his new role, Dyer will also be Corus’ liaison to programming execs at TELETOON, which is a major broadcast partner for the company.
Doug Murphy will serve as president of Nelvana Enterprises, which will be devoted to broadcast sales, new platform opportunities and consumer products licensing for all Corus brands internationally. Reporting to John Cassaday, Murphy will be tasked with creating international opportunities for Corus, including new networks, new distribution platforms and new partnerships. Murphy’s team will expand on such recent developments as Corus’ video-on-demand services with Comcast in the U.S. and British Telecommunications, and the partnership with NBC, Ion, Scholastic and Classic Media to launch the new U.S. kids’ network Qubo. Nelvana will close its offices in the U.K. and Los Angeles as Nelvana Enterprises operates out of Toronto, Paris and Shannon.
The organizational shake-up also sees the development of a new lifestyle, drama and movies portfolio that lumps together Movie Central, W Network, CMT and SCREAM, while consolidating Movie Central’s Edmonton operations into Corus’ Toronto broadcast center.
All appointments are effective today and Corus expects all organizational changes to be completed by January of 2007. The Company confirmed that it will cut 83 jobs in the process.
