Mark Berry AMG Production's Global Entertainment Joint Venture With B-Squared To Focus On Urban Television Properties And 15% Growth Plan In 2014

New venture targets the online youth market of 15-25. 2013-14 was a significant turnaround year for AMG, the Toronto based media and entertainment company. The operations shifted from music to include reality based television shows, dramas and their film content was strengthened as it strategized the integration of high profile documentaries and live superstar music concert performances into its extensive music media catalog. AMG Chairman Mark S. Berry and EVP Rob "Kelo" Hendricks promises to make the remaining 2014/15 an even bigger year with a focus on urban themed film and television properties through its newly inked joint venture with New York's B-Squared Entertainment. B-Squared's CEO Frank Blenman states, "We are looking to capture our audience with new, innovative, daring and captivating content with a undercurrent of global appeal. I'm excited about the programming we currently have on the table as well as the discussions we're holding with other prospects. Mark and the team at AMG are top notch niche oriented professionals that are bringing international broadcast distribution to the table as well as development expertise." Building on high profile name properties, in September, the red hot Dennis Rodman documentary, 'Doing It My Way' will arrive produced in association with Shami Media in New York, followed by the reality based 'As The Pole Turns'. "Our aim is to make high profile urban properties bigger by creating notoriety through social media and other international media licensing platforms inclusive of telecoms worldwide." says Berry. "The third show we are very excited about is the street drama 'Heroes of Hip Hop'. What we have noticed is that street kids were watching the show online gaining an audience. Our aim is to have every urban music lover in the country watch the show. As a result, urban themed music companies and sponsors have started advertising and getting in on the action with the growing number of eyeballs online." Another area of focus will be building interaction and doing social media activation for all B-Squared properties. More focus on digital marketing: Berry says that the company has done a different mix of marketing when one looks at online. "A lot of online programming that we do is about increasing segment viewership," he explains. Berry says that this is more of a social media initiative. "When we look at social media, we look at doing things that will activate it. Social media is about conversation. We wanted to create a platform for viewers to converse about our shows. People chatter and compare shows using social media. So we felt the need to launch urban street based shows that will give people the chance to talk about the shows. We are not just pushing urban based shows, but ones that have a global appeal. "Our audience looks to be linked around the world through comedy, action, adventure and drama. We are gender neutral-skewed production entity," states B-Squared's Frank Blenman. AMG's brand positioning is clear. "AMG is skewing increasingly towards the youth. We are catching people young, which is good. While our core audience is between 15-25 years and growing rapidly for us. We are getting in content that they want to watch such as 'Heroes of Hip Hop'," avers Berry. For AMG, reality works the best in terms of online viewership return. Around 55 per cent of B-Squared's viewership comes from reality themed programming. "We have a team of 10 people looking after different areas like programming, marketing, production etc. We are definitely more flexible. We are on the ground listening to the online community. This is really helping us. We are faster and are quicker to respond to the market, states Blenman.