PorchLight Launches Home Entertainment Division

LOS ANGELES, June 25: PorchLight Entertainment is forming a
U.S. home-entertainment division that will focus on releasing its own kids’ and
family titles, as well as third-party fare.

“When the PorchLight doors opened
over a decade ago, it was with the expressed commitment to deliver the best of
family entertainment to audiences everywhere,” said Bruce Johnson, PorchLight’s
president and CEO. “Whether
produced by PorchLight or acquired from independent producers, PorchLight Home
Entertainment will extend the reach and values of PorchLight’s name by
providing superb programming directly to kids and their parents.”

PorchLight has appointed Gary
Jones as senior VP of PorchLight Home Entertainment. Jones, an industry veteran
with stints at New Concorde, Trimark and Republic Pictures, will oversee
acquisitions and sales.

The division issues its first release this November: the LeapFrog
animated DVD special A Tad of Christmas Cheer. “LeapFrog
is one of the leading educational electronic companies in the world and we are
confident that this new release will follow in the path of prior LeapFrog DVD releases
that have sold millions of units to date,” Jones said.

Also hitting shelves in November is the one-hour A
Christmas Carol for Annie, from the classic PBS series Adventures from the Book of Virtues.
In December, the company will release the Lifetime movie The Family Holiday,
as well as the 90-minute live-action adventure
Treasure Island Kids: The
Pirates of Treasure Island.