Canadian media company
Boat Rocker Media is a Canadian entertainment company based in Toronto, Ontario. The company owns Boat Rocker Studios, which incorporates Temple Street Productions. Its majority shareholder is Fairfax Financial. Boat Rocker is led by co-executive chairs David Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg and CEO John Young.[1]
Boat Rocker produces and distributes a wide range of scripted and unscripted television shows, animation and family content, such as Invasion,[2][3] American Rust,[2] Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry,[4] Orphan Black,[2] and Dino Ranch.[2]
Boat Rocker owns other entertainment properties, including Jam Filled Entertainment, Insight Productions, Matador Content,[5] and Platform One Media,[6] and does talent management[7] and venture investing.[8]
History
Boat Rocker Media was established in 2003 by Ivan Schneeberg and David Fortier.[4][9] Its largest division, Boat Rocker Studios, encompasses Temple Street Productions, which was acquired by Schneeberg and Fortier in 2006.[10][11] The company's other divisions were Boat Rocker Animation, Boat Rocker Ventures, and Boat Rocker Rights.[10]
Boat Rocker Rights' first outside distribution deal was with the pick-up of international rights to Steve Rotfeld Productions' Xploration Station block's programs in late February 2016.[12] Then in June 2016, the unit acquired Mountain Road Productions library distribution rights plus a first look deal with the company.[13]
In 2016, Boat Rocker purchased Radical Sheep Productions, which continued operating as Boat Rocker's family and children's media unit.[14] In early August 2016, Boat Rocker purchased Jam Filled Entertainment, which was to continuing operating with current management and name.[15] Boat Rocker through Jam Filled purchased Arc Productions' main assets on August 22, 2016, and reopened Arc's Toronto office.[16]
In January 2018, Boat Rocker acquired FremantleMedia's Kids & Family Entertainment division, which includes the children's programming library of Thames Television.[17]
In November 2018, Boat Rocker acquired Matador Content, producers of the Paramount Network series Lip Sync Battle and its spinoff Lip Sync Battle Shorties on sister network Nickelodeon.[18]
In March 2019, Boat Rocker invested in Untitled Entertainment, a talent management and production company.[7] It has also made investments in Realm Media,[19] the Toronto Arrows,[20] CAA Creative Labs,[21] and MarcoPolo Learning.[22]
In September 2019, Boat Rocker acquired Platform One Media, a Los Angeles-based television production and sales company operated by television producer Katie O’Connell Marsh, whose credits include Hannibal and Narcos. Marsh stayed on after the acquisition.[19][23]
In December 2020, Temple Street was incorporated into Boat Rocker Studios, Scripted.[24]
Boat Rocker signed first-look deals with Lena Headey’s Peephole Productions[25] and Dakota Johnson's TeaTime Pictures.[26] In March 2021, it partnered with television executive Jessica Sebastian-Dayeh to create Maven, which focuses on female-led stories.[27][28]
Most recently, on December 20, 2021, Boat Rocker had bought out a minority stake in the TeaTime Pictures production company.[29]
