The longtime executives have bought 50% of Mighty Oak Entertainment from Mark O’Brien. Bryan and Ellis have joined the company as president and chairman, respectively.
John Bryan, Bert Ellis Invest In Mighty Oak
Former MGM Television President John Bryan and entrepreneur and KDOC Los Angeles owner Bert Ellis Jr. have purchased 50% of Mighty Oak Entertainment from Mark O’Brien. Bryan and Ellis have joined the company as president and chairman, respectively.
John Bryan
Mighty Oak Entertainment is a clip-based sports programming company started in 2005 by O’Brien. Its major property, Whacked Out Sports, is the second longest running “clip” series in broadcast history next to America’s Funniest Home Videos, according to the company. Mighty Oak has a library of more than 578 episodes that can be used in traditional, digital and streaming formats.
Bert Ellis Jr.
The shows produced and distributed by Mighty Oak include: Whacked Out Sports, TV Auto Show, Goofball Sports, Whacked Out Sports Machine, Whacked Out Videos, Whacked Out Sports 3D, Monster Knockout, Knockout Sports World, Sports Crash, Sports Pizza, Sports-A-Palooza, World Palooza and they air on various global networks, digital platforms and cable outlets.
New series include: My Viral Video, Psychic Court, Athlete Interrupted, Pilot Party, Whacked Out Uncensored, The Epic Fail Show, Amazing Kids, Bad Day @Work and Meta Force.
BRAND CONNECTIONS
The following programs are in active development: Weekend Workout, Whacked Out TV and Workout Freaks, with more in the pipeline.
Mighty Oak says it is exploring growth opportunities in traditional/digital media and the sports betting space. “Sports clip content can enhance the digital interfaces of sports books, news sites and related service providers seeking to ramp up their entertainment content,” the company said.
Mark O’Brien
“This partnership with John and Bert is an opportunity to take our areas of expertise and bring them together to build a multi-platform network of content for the global marketplace,” said O’Brien. “We have over 10,000 clips with music licensed in perpetuity that is available for all areas of distribution. We each bring unique skill sets to maximize the library, expand titles and create new IP. I am honored to be in business with both John and Bert.”
On the partnership, Bryan said: “Sports is a global and universal vertical of entertainment that is wildly popular. We see the strong potential to monetize the existing library and develop new formats and content. To have an evergreen library, free of rights issues is a powerful position to be in, since demand for content is increasing in the worldwide marketplace.”
Ellis said: “Mark’s vision to amass both clip and music publishing rights has become a big success. Now, we have the ability to take both sets of rights to market while continuing to create content that is vibrant, funny and of interest to viewers around the world on screens of all sizes.”
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