Dan March

World Screen Weekly, October 9, 2008

Executive VP

Echo Bridge Entertainment

Founded five years ago by CEO Michael Rosenblatt as a film-distribution outfit, Echo Bridge Entertainment made a big play for the television business this year when it acquired Alliance Atlantis International Television Distribution. “Expanding our presence in worldwide television was of high importance to us,” says Dan March, who heads up the company’s sales activities. “We think there are a lot of opportunities for independents in the television industry. What [the Alliance Atlantis deal] does for us is it provides us with arguably the largest independent television catalogue in the industry.”

The acquisition, announced on the eve of MIPTV in April, gives the company a library of some 600 movies, 2,500 drama episodes, 3,000-plus children’s episodes and in excess of 3,000 episodes of lifestyle programming. “It gives us incredible diversity in every genre,” says March. “It allows us become a programming solution for almost any broadcaster in the world.”

Highlights of the slate for March include the award-winning Canadian drama DaVinci’s Inquest; the critically acclaimed comedy Jeff Ltd.; the hit teen series Degrassi: The Next Generation, which recently scored a new deal with Virgin 17 in France, and Instant Star, whose fourth season was picked up by Mediaset; the kids’ show Lunar Jim and the lifestyle offerings Rich Bride Poor Bride, Crash Test Mommy and David Rocco’s Dolce Vita.

March has been busy integrating the Alliance Atlantis titles and building an infrastructure to cope with that increased volume. “We have very unique ideas on how to manage a catalogue of this size and do it in a way where our clients have seamless, targeted access to what they need. [MIPCOM is] our first chance to integrate all the titles into our sales presentation for our clients.”

Working with large libraries is not new to March, who negotiated the sale of PM Entertainment’s 130-title film library to the founders of Echo Bridge. At the completion of that deal, he was asked to join the new company to build its distribution business off the back of the acquired catalogue of feature films.

With its new wealth of TV content, March is working on expanding his team. “We’re in the process of hiring sales people, opening an office in London and really building our sales infrastructure in a meaningful way.”

With a larger team, March notes that Echo Bridge is looking at the possibility of other acquisitions, as well as a move into first-run programming. “When we partner with producers, which we have successfully done over and over again, we have very good relationships because there are not inherent conflicts between our company and what the producers’ goals are. We are not a production company, nor do we want to become a production company. We want to specialize in worldwide distribution. Every producer that comes to us is front and center when we speak with a client. We think about how to sell programming to worldwide audiences, how to position programming in the marketplace, what the message is, why ithas worked. We put a lot of effort into that and I think it’s really paid off.

“We pride ourselves on being a market-responsive company,” March continues. “We listen to our broadcasters, what is working for them, what is not working for them, what their current needs are, where the programming trends are shifting to. We’re not sitting in a room saying, This could be a good idea. We’re listening exactly to what the clients want. We can work with them to make sure that we’re filling those holes and making good business.”

—By Mansha Daswani