CEO and chair John Brunton on Insight Productions’ impending move under the Blue Ant umbrella – a deal that nearly happened more than once in the past – and his optimism for the future after CBC’s brush with potential defunding.  

John Brunton

More than half a century after its formation, Toronto-based Insight Productions will soon enter a new phase of ownership following Blue Ant Media’s reverse takeover of Boat Rocker, a deal that promises to shake up the country’s production sector.

The transaction will bring Insight’s vast production slate, including Canada’s Ultimate Challenge, The Amazing Race Canada, Top Chef Canada and Canada Shore, as well as some of the country’s top unscripted showrunning talent, into the Blue Ant fold.

It will also see Insight’s CEO and chair John Brunton link up with an old friend, Blue Ant Media CEO and co-founder Michael MacMillan.

Both men’s careers started at similar times, with Brunton becoming the owner of Insight Productions in the late 1970s while MacMillan launched production outfit Atlantis Films at a similar time.

They have taken different career paths, with Brunton growing Insight into one of the biggest production companies in the country, with major success in unscripted over the past two decades. MacMillan, meanwhile, has become one of the most influential dealmakers in Canadian television history, with industry-shaping transactions including the merger of Atlantis Films with Alliance Communications to form broadcast and studio group Alliance Atlantis in the late 1990s.

Now, after roughly 50 years apiece in the TV industry, they will officially be part of the same organisation, a combination that could have happened earlier, according to Brunton.

“We go back a long way, and we respect each other’s careers,” he tells C21. “We’ve talked about putting our businesses together on more than one occasion in the past.”

For Insight, the Blue Ant deals comes seven years after it was acquired by Boat Rocker as the latter went on a Canadian buying spree.

Insight’s vast production slate, includes The Amazing Race Canada

Boat Rocker subsequently went public in 2021 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. However, the downturn the following year – particularly for US scripted commissions – created sizeable challenges for the company, which, like Blue Ant, is backed by Canadian investment group Fairfax Financial.

That has led to Blue Ant’s reverse takeover of Boat Rocker. Through the deal, which recently received regulatory approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and is expected to close later this month, Blue Ant is acquiring three production companies (Insight, Proper Television and Jam Filled Entertainment) and gaining a public listing on the TSX. At the same time, Boat Rocker is delisting, with principals Ivan Schneeberg, David Fortier and John Young executing a management buyout and retaining Boat Rocker Studios, as well as the kids and family business.

With the ownership change, Brunton says Insight Productions will take a more international approach than it has done in the past.

In recent years, it has been squarely focused on the Canadian and US markets, primarily producing local adaptations of international formats and some of its own IP such as ice hockey format Battle of the Blades and competition series Canada’s Ultimate Challenge, both for the CBC.

One area where Brunton sees opportunity is the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST), where he says Blue Ant has been an “innovator.”

“One of the new opportunities will be for us to produce programming for their existing platforms [both FAST and linear] and new ones that are in the works,” he says, adding that the companies can also develop new channels together.

He also hopes that tapping into Blue Ant’s production and distribution infrastructure, as well as its network of international partners, will enable it both to bring new formats into Canada and export Insight’s proprietary formats abroad.

Canada’s Ultimate Challenge

In the leadup to the Canadian federal election in April, Brunton was involved in supporting Mark Carney’s bid to become prime minister, in large part because of the Liberal Party’s campaign pledge to support public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada. On the opposing side, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre had vowed to defund the English-language side of the CBC if he was elected, meaning a lot was riding on the outcome for the local production sector. Like many in the local industry, Brunton says he had a “deep sigh of relief” when Carney won.

In addition to pledging to increase CBC/Radio-Canada’s annual funding by C$150m (US$105m), one of the more interesting Liberal pledges is to secure “stable, long-term” funding by making the pubcaster’s annual funding statutory – meaning Canada’s parliament would be in charge of approving any changes rather than the government cabinet of the day. It remains to be seen whether this will happen, but there is huge support for the initiative within the local industry.

“I really dislike the way the CBC is funded – that a change in government can change their funding and their status,” says Brunton. “I think Canada should movement towards how the [UK’s] BBC is funded, where the change of government doesn’t allow them to interfere with the ongoing role the public broadcaster plays.”

As Insight prepares to become part of Blue Ant, Brunton has also continued to position the company for the future, last month promoting three of its senior execs, Erin Brock, Lindsay Cox and Mark Lysakowski, to co-chief content officers.

Brunton says these are part of several rounds of promotions, as he sets Insight up for the future. But beginning to hand over control can be tricky, particularly for a self-described “control freak, classic showrunner, who is obsessed with every detail, staying up until 4am in editing suites.”

It is the process Brunton has been undertaking for several years, as he sets Insight up to one day carry on without him. But don’t read too much into these promotions, he says. Retirement isn’t part of his plan any time soon.

“I’m definitely not going to retire. I’m also trying to balance the art of living, making television and media, and figuring out where all of it is moving in the future, which is happening at rocket speed,” he says. “But no, I’ve still got a few more shows up my sleeve.”

Last month, Brunton was recognised with the Academy Board of Directors’ Tribute Award at the annual Canadian Screen Awards. He had been scheduled to collect the award, which recognises major contributors to Canadian media, a year ago, but illness meant he was unable to attend the ceremony.

It was probably just as well, as the local TV sector found itself in dire straits a year ago, as the threat of CBC being defunded created existential dread among the local industry.

“I wrote a speech last year that was a barn burner – just raising hell about our culture slipping through our fingers. But I completely ripped up that speech, and I’m much more optimistic, and I feel much calmer about our industry today,” he says.

With Insight soon to be arriving at its next chapter, nestled within Blue Ant’s international production business, Brunton believes the best is yet to come from the company he has owned since 1978.

“It’s going to be another little fun adventure for us,” he says.