DOMINIC GARDINER: “WE DISTRIBUTE OUR SERIES ALL AROUND THE WORLD”

Jetpack Distribution is a boutique company specialized in children, animation, and live-action and it also distributes some family movies. Its catalogue targets kids of all ages, from preschool to teenagers.

With the company’s main office in London, the Head of Finances in Canada and Sales Teams in Paris and Island, Jetpack Distribution was born as a mobile company. "We set up our work from home and we were actually doing this way of working before the global lockdowns," said Dominic Gardiner, Jetpack Distribution’s CEO, to Señal News. "We are very well spread out and we distribute our series all around the world," he added.  

Gardiner's company works very closely with small and big independent producers. "We work with projects that are finished and complete but we also often work with producers that may be making their first series and we can work with them right for the conception of the idea, right through into production, raising financing, and distribution once it’s complete as well, so we work on productions in lots of different levels," he expressed.

Currently, Jetpack Distribution has a catalogue with 40 titles that represent almost 650 hours of content composed primarily of English series but they also offer dubbed series in multiple languages like Spanish, Italian, and French. Titles have to be unique, innovative and of a big quality to be part of the Jetpack's offer. “We feel the audience wants to be surprised,” commented the CEO of the company.

Having a big catalogue allows Jetpack Distribution to sell content all the time, even titles that they have had for many years, and maybe they think have been sold everywhere. "That is rewarding too," affirmed Gardiner. The executive also commented that there are a lot of new platforms coming up and a lot of Apps because many people need educational content and quite often they don’t have big budgets. "They are just trying to get their platform off the ground”, he explained. "The great thing about the catalogue for us is that we are able to supply content to starlet companies," he asserted. "That is the emerging future for content, being distributed in many small platforms," he explained but he also added that big studios platforms such as Netflix, HBO+, Peacock, etc, are changing the way content will be consumed. "The catalogue is really important for the big players too," he completed.

To expand its offer, Jetpack Distribution is working on two new shows, one of them is high quality animated series and the other one is an action-adventure series.

When the pandemic started in Europe the company operation didn’t change, they were already set up this way. "Of course, it meant we weren't able to physically meet our clients as we like regularly, but what changed the most was the communication," asserted Gardiner.

Jetpack Distribution's CEO is so looking forward to being able to travel again and meet people. "That is something we are all craving very much, because we are people business", but in the meantime, the company has developed new strategies to continue working.

About virtual markets, Gardiner said they did a lot of Zoom meetings during the MIPTV period, and then in the Annecy-MIFA time, they registered and listened to a lot of conferences and sessions. "It was very useful but I think it’s really a temporary solution. We miss the networking, we miss the opportunity to meet people that we had not met before and that is for all of our business the most important time, the surprise meeting",  he concluded.

By Romina Rodríguez