Blue Ant Studios is an international production studio and rights business with operations in Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, London, Singapore and Sydney. The company’s diverse production slate spans scripted comedy and drama, unscripted entertainment, formats, high-impact documentaries, live-action kids + family, and animation. The studio is anchored in original storytelling, with award-winning content, with standout titles including Blown Away

(Netflix), Canada’s Drag Race (Crave), Davey and Jonesie’s Locker

(Hulu and Prime Video), Slaycation (Crave), Northwoods Survival/Hard North ( APTN, Nat Geo, Prime Video), Drink Masters (Netflix), Race Against the Tide (CBC), Doomlands (Roku), and the upcoming animated preschool series Tralala (CBC, Sky NZ). The company’s recent feature-length documentary, Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe (Prime Video), was awarded the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary. Blue Ant Studios’ distribution arm has a vast catalogue of nearly 8000 hours of premium programming from the studio and third-party, top-tier producers around the world. Blue Ant Studios is a subsidiary of the global media company, Blue Ant Media. blueantmedia.com⼁Instagram⼁LinkedIn

Our employees are passionate experts in all of our business areas. They are fanatical about creating outstanding content and experiences, and about delivering them on new and evolving platforms. We actively seek new employees who embody our core values. We want them to think big, act with purpose, celebrate creativity, do the right thing, respect one another, and succeed together. We attract creative talents who are optimistic about the evolving future of content and who take pride in recognizing opportunities where others see challenges. At Blue Ant Media, we give them the flexibility to think like entrepreneurs, take ownership of their projects, take risks, and embrace innovation in a rapidly evolving media landscape. Our team members excel at collaborating with internal and external partners by building trusting, respectful working relationships.

Senior Director, International Distribution and Business Operations (Blue Ant Studios)

We are seeking an experienced and strate gic Senior Director, International Distribution and Business Operat ions who will play a key role in leading the overall operations of our Distribution content ingestion and delivery department while working closely with our internal shared Media Services delivery unit.

This role will have two (2) direct reports: Senior Content Deliveries Coordinator and Rights Analyst.

This role will report into the Co-President, Blue Ant Studios and is a hybrid position requiring in-office attendance for a minimum of three (3) da ys per week.

Core Responsibilities & Duties

• Lead the operations of the Distribution content ingestion and delivery department while working closely with our internal shared Media Services delivery unit.
• Maintain a sharp focus on prioritization of activities, with an eye to monetization opportunities and efficiency.
• Work closely with sales, acquisitions and operations teams to drive efficiencies and explore cost savings in content delivery.
• Oversee the review and approval for operations-related PO’s and invoices.
• Collaborate with rights and legal teams to confirm IP availability, including review of all deals in negotiation, cross-referencing buyer specifications against available materials, delivery costs, consulting on materials fees and reviewing for profit ability.
• Manage the Senior Content Deliveries Coo r dinator and work with Rights Analyst to prevent any rights clashes, internal reporting required and establishing any new precedents.
• Work closely with the legal team across contract pipeline to ensure timely delivery of material as per contracted terms and ensuring IP/CRM systems and other tracking documents are always up to date.
• Act as the department lead for the Media Asset Management (MAM) system, and Rights Management (Rightsline) systems. Oversee and lead the implementation of the new CRM system. Work closely with internal teams on centralized language version database, centralized spec database and deal tracking initiatives in collaboration with all other Blue Ant departments.
• Coordinate and prioritize all deliveries with internal Media Services teams to ensure timely and efficient fulfillment in accordance with agreed terms.
• Research market rates and negotiate external vendor costs as necessary and oversee and approve Media Services timesheets/billing.
• Work closely with the Senior Director of Finance, and Media Services to ensure new projects, vendors and assigned resources are tracked and invoiced accordingly on delivery.
• Liaise with the legal team to ensure MAM and CRM is updated with language versions. Work with Rights Analyst to access available language versions to help increase sales opportunities for sales executives and Love Nature.
• Facilitate internal communications of approvals to channels (Canadian and International).
• Conduct ongoing review of partnership with Media Services department and provide feedback on ways to improve the delivery process.
• Manage official deal approvals process with Love Nature/BAM Channels, and producer approvals, including sending and tracking approvals.
• Oversee sales and operations for all clip sales from rights/stock footage checks, to client management, to contracting and delivery.
• Research new emerging online marketplace tools and AI opportunities for additional revenue and sales prospects for distribution.

Qualifications and Experience

• 10+ years of experience in media distribution, content operations, or related media business operations roles
• Knowledge of rights, licensing and contract negotiation as it relates to media distribution.
• Strong understanding and experience with media asset management (MAM) systems and rights management systems.
• Experience in leading content delivery to global SVOD and VOD partners.
• Technical understanding is an asset.
• Ability to collaborate and partner with the various teams (i.e., sales, acquisitions, legal, operations, etc.)
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills with the ability of engaging with stakeholders at all levels

Blue Ant Media, we believe promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion is everyone's responsibility. We can all contribute. As a global media company, we recognize our platform and opportunity to influence change and promote a more inclusive world. We know what we create, distribute, and produce is better with a diverse workforce. In recruiting for our teams, we encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds (who are eligible to work in Canada) and welcome the unique contributions each person brings.

If you have most of the qualifications listed in our posting, but are not sure whether to proceed with your application, we still encourage you to apply. We thank all candidates for their interest in Blue Ant Media and we will reach out to those candidates that are under consideration. If you are contacted for an interview and require an accommodation at any time during the recruitment process, please email our Human Resources team at HR@blueantmedia.com.