MICHAEL HIRSH million , and Hirsh continued as co-CEO until 2002 . Two years later , he led a consortium , which acquired the remnants of Cinar Corporation , became CEO , and rebranded it as Cookie Jar Entertainment .
“ Having sold Nelvana and staying on for two more years , I missed having my own company ,” says Hirsh . “ In Cinar I saw the opportunity to build another kids ’ entertainment company using the skeletal bones of what was already in place .”
Cookie Jar Entertainment went on to become one of the world ’ s largest privately-held children ’ s entertainment companies . It was acquired by DHX Media in 2012 , at which point Hirsh became Executive Chairman and served on the board until the end of 2015 .
Hirsh is – rightly so – extremely proud of having built Canada ’ s children ’ s television industry , giving opportunities to over 10,000 artists . He has been granted the honor of many awards over the years , including three Daytime Emmys , and his expertise has also earned him invitations to act as keynote speaker at various industry events and film festivals . But after working for so long in children ’ s television , how has the sector changed since 1971 ?
“ It has gotten better and better ,” Hirsh says . “ All the changes that have happened in TV have helped made kid ’ s TV better . When I first started there was no real market in Canada , and the US had three stations with CBS , NBC , and ABC . Now , there are at least 1,520 kid ’ s TV channels in Canada and the United States is the same . Platforms like Netflix and Amazon have also added unlimited shelf space , creating greater opportunity for an even larger variety of programming , satisfying the needs of children and parents .”
Now , Hirsh is a principal with The Entertainment and Media Finance Group Inc ., also known as
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