TORONTO – Veteran producers Stephen Ellis and Clark Bunting have launched a new Canadian factual production house they’re calling BirdDog Media Ventures.
Based in Toronto, the company was created to “capitalize on the ongoing factual content explosion fueled by the increased competition among traditional channel players and online streaming services. The company has numerous series and specials already in development,” says the press release. It did not name any of them.
Stephen Ellis is best known for having led Ellis Entertainment, one of Canada’s largest producers of natural history content and longest operated indies. The company’s many titles included the 20 year, 200 episode series Profiles of Nature.
Clark Bunting, was president and GM of Discovery Channel U.S. where, under his stewardship, some of the channel’s most memorable series came to life including Deadliest Catch, MythBusters, The Crocodile Hunter, and mini-series Life and Frozen Planet, among others.
“BirdDog is a new take on producing fact-based entertainment with global appeal, while remaining rooted in the highly successful Canadian documentary tradition,” said Ellis, president and COO, in the release.
“BirdDog presents an opportunity to lead in the telling of new stories in new ways as the audience demand for factual continues to grow, while collaborating in the leading edge Canadian factual industry,” added Bunting, who is chairman and CEO.
