Breakthrough Celebrates 30 Years

NEW YORK: World Screen speaks to Breakthrough Entertainment's Ira Levy, partner and executive producer, and Nat Abraham, president of distribution, about the company, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

It was 1985 when Breakthrough Entertainment first entered the marketplace. The company was launched by Ira Levy and Peter Williamson, who went to film school together in London and jointly produced their first documentary, aptly titled The Breakthrough. The initial focus was on producing programs in Canada, notably kids’ content, but today Breakthrough has evolved into a full-fledged media company spanning production and distribution in numerous genres and reaching all corners of the globe.

“The company grew as television grew, and that will be an ongoing theme: as delivery of content evolves, the company evolves,” says Levy, who today is partner and executive producer at Breakthrough.

Nat Abraham and Michael McGuigan later came on board as partners, each bringing with them their own set of strengths. “One of the things that I find really unique about Breakthrough is that we are four partners but we all complement each other in really interesting ways,” says Abraham, the president of distribution. “Mike was our CFO and is now a very integral part of our new-media division; I’m from the distribution area, both Ira and Pete are from the production area as well as from the sales area—all of us complement each other strongly. That’s what’s helped the company really grow, bringing those strengths together.”

Abraham says that the shifts in the media landscape over the last 30 years have presented just as many opportunities as they have challenges, one of which has been the consolidation of broadcasters in Canada. “There are only so many buyers out there,” he says. “Canada has a great funding system, but the opportunities are not as frequent as they used to be for all the producers here. The positive side of that is that we are looking outside of Canada for co-pro opportunities and partnerships. It’s got us expanding our horizons beyond Canada. We’ve always had our eye beyond our borders, but more so now.

“The digital channels are giving us, and everyone else, a huge boost in opportunities,” he continues. “There have been some interesting developments.”

Levy adds to that by pointing out how producers no longer necessarily just make a linear program nowadays: “You make content that can be linear but also work on content that can be interactive, can complement the linear programming, be something used for an online game or mobile devices.”

And Breakthrough has been working to strengthen its partnerships with talented, creative producers in numerous areas. The company started out just distributing its own in-house productions, but has amassed some 3,500 episodes of programming now that includes a range of third-party titles.

“From my perspective with a distribution background, the thing that fascinates me about this company when I look at what others in the business are doing is the diversity of our programming,” says Abraham. “To me, that is everything. In a content environment, you need to have sufficient critical mass for all ages, all sexes, for everybody. Breakthrough does that—I’ve got great kids’ product, great factual product, great history and science, and we do great movies. This is one of the few companies that actually produces in all of those various areas and does so very successfully.”

The current production slate boasts a wealth of new kids’ programming, including a third season of Rocket Monkeys and second seasons of Max & Shred, The Adventures of Napkin Man and Science Max. Breakthrough’s Anne of Green Gables movie, starring Martin Sheen, is launching this fall. Blood and Water is a prime-time detective show produced in English and Mandarin. There are horror features, including Antisocial, and family films such as Bark Ranger. As for factual, highlights include the World War I series The Great War Tour with Norm Christie.

Abraham says that looking ahead, natural history and wildlife is an area that Breakthrough will look to ramp up, and there are also some big plans in regard to feature films.

“We want to continue to succeed with the genres that we are strong in—kids, animation, prime time, factual—but we are also branching out in terms of other ways of monetizing or capitalizing on the vast library of content and IP that we have,” says Levy. “This could mean taking old brands and reinventing them or taking programming that exists and finding new audiences for it.”

He adds: “When you’ve been around for 30 years, you have to continually reinvent yourself. We’re not frightened of evolving the company; in fact, change is necessary. You can either embrace it or fight it, and we embrace it.”