Caroline Tyre joins Genius Brands as SVP

European expansion and new licensing partners for VOD—the media co's new head of international distribution breaks down her goals for the company.
July 2, 2019

California-based media company Genius Brands has hired Caroline Tyre as SVP of international distribution to oversee global content sales. Tyre will also lead the company’s digital growth across its Kid Genius and Baby Genius TV channels in her role as head of Genius Brands Network.

Based in Toronto, Canada, Tyre started in the role in June. She reports to Genius Brands’ CEO Andy Heyward. Tyre is responsible for content sales for the company’s programming including its animated series Rainbow Rangers, Llama Llama and the upcoming Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten, which will be on offer for the first time at MIP Jr. this October.

Her immediate goal is to start distributing Genius Brands’ flagship content to the major European broadcasters and across G8 countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the UK ,” says Tyre.

“Noggin and Nick Jr. in Latin America picked up season one of Rainbow Rangers [in May] and we have 350 new SKUs for the show coming to retailers in the US in the coming months,” she says. “Genius is expanding globally and now is a great time for the international sales and distribution that will help us with our toy partners and licensees to get more exposure internationally.”

Before joining Genius, Tyre was the VP of sales and acquisitions at Toronto-based distributor AuxMode where she helped content creators monetize and distribute their IPs. Prior to that she managed content distribution across Western Europe, LatAm and Australia as the senior director of international sales and acquisitions at Toronto’s Breakthrough Entertainment. She was also the manager of acquisitions and later the director of programming at Corus-owned Canadian channel Teletoon.

“I’ve had the 360 of the kids business. I’ve done distribution, broadcast, AVOD and I’m able to take all of the pieces of my experience and build on what the team has done to the next level,” says Tyre. “Working at AuxMode taught me a lot about managing rights well and building discoverability. All my experience shows me that quality content is what’s most important and if it works well in one space it’ll work well everywhere.”

Looking ahead Tyre wants to expand Genius Brands’ digital growth through YouTube and explore other platforms for the content to increase the presence of the company’s brands.

“We also know that kids are more in the VOD space and we want to reach them,” says Tyre. “We have traditional partners, licensees and toy companies that are very dependent on a linear broadcast model because that’s what the traditional retail model tells them is important, but this is a real opportunity for us to grow to be where kids are. We’re growing and this is a chance to continue that growth internationally.”

About The Author
News editor for Kidscreen. Ryan covers tech, talent and general kids entertainment news, with a passion for kids rap content and video games. Have a story that's of interest to Kidscreen readers? Contact Ryan at rtuchow@brunico.com

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