Senior Executive experienced in the strategic planning and execution of multi-million dollar media business deals with specific expertise in the entertainment and digital media industry. Expert knowledge of the digital, on-demand and television markets coupled with a highly successful record of negotiating and managing strategic relationships with multi-billion dollar companies. Excel at analyzing market trends and innovations to create high profit businesses relationships and creative marketing solutions.
Currently serves as President Entertainment and President TV for Indomitable Entertainment an Executive Production Services and Consultancy company. Jon is charged with oversight of the Film business with a focus on securing and structuring film financing and the digital consultancy business which works with early phase media focused Internet companies, while launching the company’s TV unit.
Previously, Jon served as EVP Digital & On-Demand and TV Distribution for LIONSGATE: There Jon led Lionsgate’s digital and on-demand sales and distribution business from 2004-2011 as the company transitioned from an independent into a mini-major film distributor. He wasprimarily responsible for the company’s tremendous growth in the cable on-demand and digital VOD and EST platforms. In addition to launching Lionsgate’s VOD business with Comcast, Time Warner and other MSO’s, Jon established Lionsgate as a leader in monetizing digital rights with deals with Apple iTunes, Microsoft, Sony, and Amazon. In 2008 he further expanded Lionsgate’s digital distribution with deals with Hulu and YouTube on an ad-supported basis. Jon was also a member of the negotiation team for the creation of two highly innovative TV/Digital networks; EPIX and FearNet. Under Jon’s management, Lionsgate has released over 1,000 films and over 17 series for digital distribution and has expanded the company’s digital footprint into the UK, Australia and New Zealand. He was responsible for negotiating the ground breaking Mad Men license to Netflix. Jon joined Lionsgate following the merger with Artisan Entertainment where he served as Senior Vice President of TV Sales.
More recently, Jon served as SVP US Program Sales TV & Digital for eONE: Jon led eOne’s digital and TV sales strategy as the US operation transitioned from a 3rd party rep company to a theatrical, television and digital distribution service. He successfully repositioned the company and secured long term agreements for the theatrical slate with Netflix, guaranteed subscription-on-demand slots for the Redbox/Verizon service, TV video-on-demand distribution with iN Demand (Comcast, Time Warner, Cox), DirecTV and Vubiquity (AT&T, Verizon, Charter) and improved terms for multi-territory digital distribution with Google, Sony and Microsoft. In addition he licensed first run series programming to traditional and digital networks services including NBC/Universal and Hulu and off-network series to services including Netflix. The implementation of his marketing and programming strategies along with the improved margins resulted in over 450% growth in transactional digital quarterly revenue over a 2 year period.
Jon holds an MA in Communications Management from USC’s Annenberg School of Communications and a BA from San Francisco State University. He is a member of the TV Academy and speaks regularly on the video distribution business.