DHX MEDIA APPOINTS LARA ILIE AS VP OF RIGHTS STRATEGY, AND RACHEL TAYLOR AS COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR, WILDBRAIN

Halifax, NS – 18 January 2019 – DHX Media (or the “Company”) (TSX: DHX, NASDAQ: DHXM), a global children’s content and brands company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Lara Ilie to the position of Vice President of Rights Strategy, reporting to Anne Loi, Chief Commercial Officer. In this newly created position, Ms Ilie will develop and help implement integrated strategies to monetize the Company’s portfolio of intellectual property rights across business units and territories. Working with the senior management team, Ms Ilie will be responsible for formulating strategies to keep DHX Media at the forefront of market trends and grow revenue from the Company’s leading portfolio of kids and family brands. In addition, Ms Ilie will manage sales of DHX Media’s content library in Canada, Italy, Spain and Australia.

Lara Ilie, VP, Rights Strategy, DHX Media

“We are committed to driving increased growth from our world-leading portfolio of kids’ and family brands,” said Josh Scherba, President, DHX Media. “Lara has a talent for building strong client relationships and has consistently demonstrated a keen understanding of the international market for children’s content and brands. With her in-depth knowledge of DHX Media’s rights business, Lara is the ideal person to help us further identify and advance integrated strategies to propel our rights business on the next phase of growth.”

“I look forward to working with the management team to develop the best integrated strategies for driving growth from our rights portfolio, taking advantage of opportunities across our business units to maximize international sales for our brands,” said Ms Ilie.

Based in DHX Media’s Toronto offices, Ms Ilie has worked for DHX Media since 2007 and was previously Senior Director of Sales, responsible for Iberia, Italy, Benelux, Nordics, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Prior to DHX Media, she worked in sales and acquisitions for Romanian Television and Pro TV.

WildBrain Commercial Director

In addition, DHX Media is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, WildBrain, has appointed Rachel Taylor to the position of Commercial Director, reporting to Jon Gisby, Managing Director, WildBrain. Responsible for expanding WildBrain’s commercial partnership business with third-party brands, Ms Taylor leads WildBrain’s sales and operations teams, as well as client management. Based in London, UK, Ms Taylor comes to WildBrain with extensive experience in content distribution and monetization, coupled with a background in toys. During her career, she has held senior business and commercial roles at Sony Pictures Entertainment where she was Director of Commercial Partnerships for EMEA and Director of Global Commercial Innovation and Strategy, and at Twentieth Century Fox. Prior to joining WildBrain, she was International Sales Director for Australian toy company, Funtastic, and was tasked with re-launching the business’ own IP brands and growing its international distribution footprint.

Rachel Taylor, Commercial Director, WildBrain

“The third-party kids’ brands that we manage are an important pillar of the WildBrain business,” said Mr Gisby. “Rachel possesses a deep appreciation of the importance of commercial partnerships, built over a decade of experience working in international media and consumer products. We welcome her to the WildBrain team and look forward to working with her to continue building our network of clients and developing these relationships.”

“WildBrain is widely recognized as a leader in the kids’ space on YouTube and I look forward to working with Jon and his team to help grow the business further,” said Ms Taylor.

For more information, please contact:

Trade Media: Aimee Norman at DDA Blueprint PR
aimee@ddablueprint.com
+44 (0) 20 7932 9800

About DHX Media

DHX Media Ltd. (TSX: DHX, NASDAQ: DHXM) is a global children’s content and brands company, recognized for such high-profile properties as Peanuts, Teletubbies, Strawberry Shortcake, Caillou, Inspector Gadget, and the acclaimed Degrassi franchise. One of the world’s foremost producers of children’s shows, DHX Media owns the world’s largest independent library of children’s content, at 13,000 half-hours. It licenses its content to broadcasters and streaming services worldwide and generates royalties through its global consumer products program. Through its subsidiary, WildBrain, DHX Media operates one of the largest networks of children’s channels on YouTube. Headquartered in Canada, DHX Media has offices worldwide. Visit us at www.dhxmedia.com.  

About WildBrain

WildBrain is an industry leader in the management and creation of preschool and children’s entertainment content on platforms such as YouTube, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire and others. WildBrain’s branded YouTube network is one of the largest of its kind, featuring more than 145,000 videos for over 600 kids’ brands in up to 22 languages. One in three kids worldwide with access to YouTube watch video on the WildBrain network, which has over 75 million subscribers, and generated over 161 billion minutes of watch time across 32 billion views in 2018. Connecting kids’ content owners with advertisers in the Advertising Video-on-Demand (AVOD) space, the WildBrain network features popular third-party brands such as Fireman Sam, Woody Woodpecker, Popeye, Shopkins, Irish Fairy Doors and Ben 10; original brands Kiddyzuzaa and Ellie Sparkles; and much of DHX Media’s world-renowned library of 13,000 half-hours of kids’ and family content, including Peanuts, Teletubbies, Strawberry Shortcake, Caillou, Inspector Gadget, Degrassi, Yo Gabba Gabba! and many others. WildBrain Studios also specializes in the creation of new, original content for its network, such as animated and live-action shorts; toy-play and stop-motion videos. WildBrain is a wholly owned subsidiary of DHX Media (TSX: DHX; NASDAQ: DHXM).