This summer, Caroline Tyre (pictured) returned to the Spin Master Entertainment fold as VP of global content distribution. With more than two decades of experience in acquisitions and distribution roles, she sits down with Kidscreen to look back on her time at major Canadian media companies and share some of the digital platform strategies she’s lining up at Spin.

Up the ranks
Toronto’s Decode Entertainment (now WildBrain) provided Tyre with a gateway into the biz when she joined as a receptionist in 1997. Her interest in distribution blossomed there, leading to a series of increasingly senior sales roles, first at Decode and then elsewhere.

“I really liked sending content out to the world [and] learning what kids liked,” says Tyre, who went on to work at Teletoon as a director of programming (2007 to 2011) and at GBI as head of sales and GM of Kartoon Channel! (2019 to 2020). She migrated back to WildBrain four years ago, overseeing big deals like last year’s rollout of the Degrassi franchise on Prime Video and Degrassi Next Generation on HBO MAX, during her second tenure.

Familiar terrain
Between 2013 and 2016, Tyre helped Spin Master set up its distribution division as a consultant. And now she has returned to head up its international content distribution team. SME offers Tyre a good balance of opportunities, from expanding the reach of established hits like PAW Patrol, to building franchises around Unicorn Academy and Vida the Vet.

Working to deliver on the international broadcasting strategy for these fledgling IPs is a top priority at the moment, along with navigating fragmentation. “Children are still consuming content in droves—it’s just the landscape of how and where they’re watching that’s changing so quickly,” she says. “YouTube and gaming are absolutely critical for capturing kid viewers.”

Expansion plans
In September, SME expanded Tyre’s role to also include oversight of music and YouTube business strategy. She’s currently busy setting up international free-to-air sales for Vida the Vet (52 x 11 minutes) in the wake of SME releasing packages of music videos and Ask Vida original shorts (26 x two minutes) on YouTube in partnership with Moonbug Entertainment. And she has already closed several key deals for Unicorn Academy in China (Mango TV, Tencent, Youku, iQIYI), Germany (Super RTL), Canada (CBC) and France (Gulli).

TikTok is also on Tyre’s radar as she expands the company’s catalogue of bite-sized content. And she’s equally keen to leverage Roblox—where Spin Master has already had success previewing shows like Bakugan: Battle Planet and Unicorn Academy before executing broader rollouts. “Us being in that [social] space will be another [important] tool,” she notes.

This story originally appeared in Kidscreen‘s Q4 magazine issue.