John Rice is the chief executive of JAM Media, an animation company which creates, develops and produces entertainment programmes for kids.
Rice, a BAFTA award-winning producer and director, began his career as an animator at 20th Century Fox in the US. This was followed by a stint at MTV in New York where he spent two years as the character designer.
Being familiar with both pre and post production and with the technologies associated with both, he set up JAM Media in 2002 with two college friends in a Dublin kitchen.
Since then the studio has produced the award winning pre-school series Picme with RTÉ, Funky Fables with the BBC and, most recently, the BAFTA winning Roy which also won the Royal Television Society award for Best Children's Drama.
The company has created and produced more than 50 hours of award-winning children’s programmes which have been broadcast on ABC Australia, Nickelodeon, France TV, WDR and RTÉ among others, and can be seen in over 95 territories worldwide.
It currently employs 50 digital artists, compositors, writers and animators in Dublin and a further 30 in their newly opened Belfast studio. A North American base is planned for Autumn 2013.
What was your "back-to-the-wall" moment and how did you overcome it?
A large distribution company was playing hardball regarding a previously agreed advance. They were looking for equity in the company or would walk thinking they had us over a barrel, which they did. I walked and they chased after us. We eventually got an even better deal due to the frustration they conjured up.
What moment/deal would you cite as the "game changer" or turning point for the company?
For my daughter's second birthday, I invited my friends to her party through an e-invite I had created that used my daughter's face superimposed onto an animated body.
The reaction to it was so overwhelming that some people offered money for us to do it for their kids. We thought it would be amazing if we could automate the system for broadcasters and their viewers, effectively making the viewers the star. We pitched to RTÉ and they commissioned the first of five series.
Nickelodeon bought it for all their 70 channels around the world. The success of that series meant we arrived on the children’s entertainment marketplace with a bang.
Were there any interesting or unusual circumstances surrounding the inception of the company or its evolution?
JAM is an acronym for John, Al and Mark. We were best mates long before we went into business together and that friendship has lasted.
We felt we had stories to tell and an innovative way to tell them, coupled with the fact that we wanted to hang out with each other.
Were there any early signs that you would eventually follow an entrepreneurial path?
When I was eight years old at an outdoor event in Abbeydorney, Co Kerry, I noticed a lack of refreshments on sale.
The following year I borrowed £20 from my dad, bought crates of minerals and penny sweets (which I sold for 2p) and was cleaned out in less than an hour.
The year after that I had twice the stock but the local grocer had set up a van with food with less of a mark up. I learned a lot about competition.
