Chloe van den Berg

TV Kids
Weekly, March 25, 2008

Director of
International

Entertainment
Rights

With
Entertainment Rights’ acquisition of Classic Media, the British kids’ and
family company’s catalogue, already home to classics like Postman Pat and Basil Brush, became considerably larger. “We
doubled the size of our company overnight,” says Chloe van den Berg, who, as
director of international at Entertainment Rights, oversees the distribution of
the combined slate.

She notes that
the integration of the Classic Media properties into the Entertainment Rights
portfolio was a smooth process. “They very much mirrored the same ethos we
have. They have classic U.S. iconic brands. It’s been very exciting and a huge
opportunity.”

Working with
iconic brands is not new to van den Berg, who has been with Entertainment
Rights since 2000, following a stint at Canada’s Alliance. She first started in
the TV business at HIT Entertainment, working under the late Peter Orton. It
was there that van den Berg developed her passion for kids’ programming,
something that hasn’t left her over the years. Van den Berg is also passionate
about the company’s properties, which include the new series Postman Pat:
Special Delivery Service.
Postman Pat, like
many properties in the Entertainment Rights catalogue, has been a success on
the licensing and merchandising front. “Entertainment Rights is very much all
about global brand management; that’s a very important part of what we do. It’s
not about just selling TV. Obviously story is king, that’s the most important
thing, but consumer-products [executives] need to have a voice in how the shows
develop if the brand is to have a true life expectancy off air. Our creative
team appreciates this and work closely with the commercial teams. It’s
important to bring them in as soon as possible. Once production is up and
running, the territory managers and the international licensing managers work
closely to build a strategic plan for every territory.”

New media is
also being factored into the brand-building strategies at Entertainment Rights,
van den Berg says. “Digital is a big part of our global strategy for building
our business.” Digital and licensing plans, however, all start with great
content, and van den Berg highlights the breadth of the Entertainment Rights
library. “It has over 9,000 episodes of programming, from preschool straight
through to teens and family. It’s a really nice broad portfolio, and that’s a
fantastic thing to have.”

—By
Mansha Daswani