John Cuddihy & Sandra Carter

World Screen Weekly, June 12, 2008

John Cuddihy

President and Managing Director

Lightworks Program Distribution

Sandra Carter

Executive VP, New Business Development, Lightworks Program Distribution

Like all distribution executives, John Cuddihy, the president and managing director of Lightworks Program Distribution (LPD), certainly appreciates having a range of interesting, intriguing titles in his catalogue that will capture buyers’ attention. But he is equally enthusiastic about a more behind-the-scenes aspect of the distribution business—what he calls building the pipeline—which is finding the right executives and creating an infrastructure that will enable him and his team to service producers and clients properly.

“Our goal is to have buyers who respect us and know that they are going to have good quality product and that we will deliver what we say we will deliver,” says Cuddihy. “And [we want to attract] producers who are anxious to work with us because they know we will produce results for them.”

As a division of Lightworks Enterprises, whose businesses include television, Internet and new media, LPD distributes a varied catalogue—one that ranges from dramas and documentaries that deal with issues such as social justice, spirituality and other important topics that challenge today’s world, to health, lifestyle and entertainment programming.

For the last few months, Cuddihy has been busy assembling the right team of executives to run the business. He has hired David Nuñez, a long-time veteran of the Latin American market, to help strengthen LPD’s position in the region; Jamie Gao, who is in charge of Asia; Daniella Kilim, who follows Central and Eastern Europe; John Clutten, who handles the U.K., South Africa and Australia; Michael Taylor of Peace Arch for Canada; Gioia Avvantaggiato of G A & A for Italy and her partner Agathe Cousin, who works with G A & A in their Paris office.

The most exciting news for LPD this year is the addition of industry maven Sandra Carter, when she merged her company, Sandra Carter Global, which specializes in entertainment, lifestyle, history, environment and health programming, with LPD and became its executive VP of business development. “She has a million contacts and she is extremely clever when it comes to how a show should look,” says Cuddihy. “She has a particularly pivotal role in our company because she is the one who acquires the great new product that will be instrumental in the company’s growth.”

Carter is quite pleased not only with the merger, but with her new role. Lightworks’ catalogue, she explains, “is really quite different from ours. Theirs is more in the spiritual genre and has a very specific marketplace. Ours is more secular in nature with Hollywood and lifestyle programming and there has been no conflict with theirs. My job has changed. I’m executive vice president of new business development, which allows me to do what I love to do and I’m very excited about that.”

Among the top-selling programs from Sandra Carter Global are The Hollywood Reporter, chock full of the latest Hollywood insider info; and The Red Carpet Reporter, which allows viewers to experience Hollywood events as if they were there, with all the glamour and glitz of star fashion, celebrity gossip and Hollywood updates. And Out There with Melissa DiMarco is a satirical dramedy that parodies the familiar genre of entertainment journalism.

A new show is The Industry, which Cuddihy and Carter describe as Risky Business meets American Idol. It features two teens from a very a wealthy family in San Diego, who start a record company called Junior Records. “The show takes you through the process of how to start a record company. The two teens audition people and bring in experts to advise. It’s very youth oriented and shows two young people being entrepreneurial,” explains Carter.

Carter has always championed programming about women and health. To that end there are two series on health in the works, one focusing on family and the other on women. And there is an upcoming documentary on Benazir Bhutto, one of the few made about the former prime minister of Pakistan.

There are numerous documentaries in LPD’s catalogue, such as C.S. Lewis: Beyond Narnia, which, as Cuddihy explains, is of particular appeal to broadcasters who are buying the feature film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. “C.S. Lewis: Beyond Narnia is a co-production with the BBC,” explains Cuddihy. “It’s beautifully done, it augments the movie and gives a little background as to who C.S. Lewis is.”

Another co-production with the BBC is Florence Nightingale, the pioneer of the profession of nursing.

LPG is headed to DISCOP with many titles, including ones featuring world-renowned names like the actors Liev Schreiber and Liam Neeson, health-guru Dr. Andrew Weil, Directors Guild of America president Michael Apted, and country singer and humanitarian Naomi Judd. And Cuddihy is keeping his eye firmly on this goal, which is “to make LPD a major independent distribution company that producers want to work with because they know they are going to get the best representation possible.”