Former Alliance exec Gord Haines has resurfaced in the industry, taking controlling interest in both Owl Communications and Mackerel Interactive Multimedia and creating an edutainment hot shop which will see Owl Television doubling its production slate this year and breaking into high-budget family programming.

The deal stipulates that Haines’ company, Combined Media, acquires 40% of Owl and a majority of Mackerel and is expected to close within the next two weeks.

Owl Communications is made up of Owl Television, a production company, and Owl publishing which produces Owl and Chickadee magazines and books including A Kid’s Guide to the Brain and The Dinosaur Question and Answer Book. Toronto-based Mackerel is a Canadian multimedia pioneer and has won national and international awards for interactive products including Mackerel Stack and Birdsong.

‘Essentially, Combined will be providing working capital for the two companies so they can reach their full potential,’ says Haines.

‘There is a tremendous opportunity to take products produced for broadcast and incorporate them into the digital world. When you put these two entities together, they’re greater than the sum of their parts.’

The new entity will blanket every element of the kids’ entertainment and education product industry, maximizing Owl’s tv production and magazine publishing divisions and utilizing Mackerel’s expertise in designing computer user interface software.

The new Owl team in place includes a pack of former Alliance execs. Jean Desormeaux is taking over from Slaight as senior vp, head of television; Kym Crepin is senior production controller, and Caird Urquhart is the operations manager. New non-Alliance related staff are ex-cbc exec Angela Bruce, Owl’s director of creative affairs Peter Lower, former ctv exec who will be director of development, and Wayne Arron, the executive in charge of production.

‘Great to have a staff’

‘It’s great to actually have a staff,’ laughs Owl founder and president Annabel Slaight. ‘Really, it’s incredible to go through the place and see a team of bright, creative people being connected to and having knowledge of every aspect of the kids’ market.’

Excitement is maybe most palpable in the television division where, with the (undisclosed) injection from Combined, the 20-year-old company will increase its number of hours produced to about 40 for the next fiscal, up from between 15 and 20 this past year.

The number of hours will double again the following year, in part due to Owl extending its focus to family programming, which will account for about 40% of its production in the year ahead. It’s too soon to discuss budgets, says Slaight, ‘but I don’t see any reason we won’t look at full-scale family productions that have budgets of up to $800,000 per half-hour.’

The other piece of working capital provided by Combined will materialize in investments in production financing through Owl’s new distribution arm, Owl International, which Slaight will head up.

Creative thrust

According to Slaight, the company’s focus on multimedia will only get stronger surrounded by people who can bring a creative thrust to its programming and publication products.

The first project on the slate is the evolution of one of the magazine’s signature characters, Mighty Mites. In development is a series for CanWest Global which will incorporate 2D and 3D effects plus live action, budgeted at $300,000 per half-hour, with delivery expected in 1997.

Other plans are to co-ordinate the launch of the Mrs. Cherrywinkle series in development for Family Channel with a new Owl magazine for preschoolers called Chirp in the same quarter next year.

In terms of Owl’s not-for-profit foundation, Owl Trust Inc., it will receive royalties for use of the trademark from Combined and continue to use any revenue it generates to further its goals in increasing children’s awareness of science and nature.