Jim Robinson and Mark Kenny have launched new TV production company, Great Island, and are aiming to create jobs and bring original content from Munster to a global market
School friends launch Great Island in Cork and plan to produce a variety of tv series
A new TV production company has launched in Cork and its founders are focusing on bringing original content from Munster to a global market. Great Island is developing long-form TV drama as well as a number of animation series and unscripted formats.
Great Island was founded by Mark Kenny and Jim Robinson in 2020 with Shemas Eivers appointed as Chairman of the Board in January of this year. Their medium term plan is to increase the number of people directly employed by Great Island to 20 while there will be additional production jobs created yearly.
The company currently has ten projects on its development slate, four of which are market-ready to pitch for production. Great Island will produce these TV series in Cork and the greater Munster region. With their current concentration on a number of scripted drama series they have employed a new Head of Drama Development, Amadeo Nikoli who has experience in European lead co-productions and is a graduate of the Netflix Masters Programme in Drama Development.
Mark Kenny, CEO, who produced and created a number of popular TV shows in the Caribbean, said there is huge potential in Cork. “Cork is an untapped market full of talented writers, actors and creatives and we really want to bring that to not only an Irish audience but a global market. The locations in Cork are ideal for TV production and in the main have previously been unexploited. There is such a varied landscape with a vibrant cosmopolitan city location as well as rural, coastal and mountainous regions. It really has it all. The value of an individual project could be over €1 million per episode and it is our intention to maximise this spend in the Cork region.”
Mark and his colleague Jim, who met in school, are also looking for an opportunity to open a large scale TV production studio in Cork. A recent report by Grant Thornton estimates that a production studio in Cork would lead to the creation of 180 direct jobs and 160 indirect jobs. In the meantime, they have secured a studio space in the Marina Commercial Park for smaller scale production needs. Rental details can be found on their website, www.greatislandfilms.com
Great Island has recently received €100,000 in funding from Enterprise Ireland to aid in the development of its slate and build out the company’s potential. One key area the founders are concentrating on is integrating Artificial Intelligence across all their creative and project management processes. To underpin their research into this area they have taken on a UCC masters intern to develop workflows and production pipelines utilising a complete array of AI tools and processes.
Jim Robinson, CFO/CTO who has a PhD in Engineering and previously owned a software company, said, “AI is set to have an enormous impact on the TV industry and we are currently in the process of examining the potential impact it will have on the industry and how we operate ourselves. It’s a very exciting time for the sector and I have a strong interest in this area given my own background in technology.”
