Mary Herne

World Screen Weekly, June 14, 2007

Executive VP of International Television and Home Entertainment Sales

Peace Arch Entertainment

Mary Herne has made a name for herself in the distribution business and today she is the executive VP of international television and home entertainment sales at Peace Arch Entertainment. But she started her career in marketing and advertising and helped launch The Movie Channel and Nickelodeon. “That was a tremendous platform for me because it gave me an understanding of the undeniable importance of branding, as well as the experience of building terrific concepts into channels that [became] major fixtures in the entertainment landscape.”

After holding positions at ESPN and then at LBS, a major player at the height of the U.S. syndication business, Herne was eager to get into international television. She was hired by the PBS station WQED to sell its National Geographic specials and other documentaries. “Frankly, I thought I had died and gone to heaven! What a fabulous job to go around the world and sell such incredible programming.” In order to fortify the PBS brand internationally, Herne created Public Television International, with the help of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as a one-stop shop for U.S. public-broadcasting product.

Herne then worked for eight years at the Playboy Entertainment Group as the head of international sales and home entertainment.

Seven months ago, Herne joined Peace Arch Entertainment, where she could put to work all her previous experience. “Peace Arch had a higher profile in the theatrical area, and we are just beginning to give it the kind of profile it deserves in the television arena,” she says. “It is a young, aggressive and ambitious company that is producing a tremendous amount of product in a wide variety of areas.” The company’s most high-profile TV project is the mini-series The Tudors, for Showtime.

As Herne explains, Peace Arch has a four-pronged distribution strategy. “The first is to produce a high volume of low-cost, story-driven genre titles for both television and DVD.” This includes annual production of about a dozen TV movies with notable casts, made for U.S. cable channels but that also have international appeal. The company also produces more than 30 hours a year of documentaries, reality, and lifestyle and factual programming for cable.

Second, Peace Arch produces high-profile TV events, such as The Tudors, as well as feature films like Delirious, Chapter 27 and The Deal.

“Third, we are acquiring and distributing top-quality library content in order to diversify our revenue stream, and last but not least, we are doing direct DVD distribution throughout North America.”

Asked if international distribution has become more complicated, Herne responds: “Yes, definitely, but you could turn that around and say that it makes for more opportunities.”

—By Anna Carugati