1. Unit 7 – Understanding the Creative Media Sector
Regional Media – Dog Ears
By Johnny Ray Brolly

2. Overview
Dog Ears is a Derry based media company that was formed in 2010.
It’s a company that frequently collaborates with other animation companies local to Ireland, in the production of various forms of animated media for children.

3. Sector
Their work is focused on creating content for younger children. All of their work is animated in some way, creating content such as digital e books and animated cartoons.
The most famous work that they’ve contributed towards is the animated children’s series, “Puffin Rock”
Seeing as this is the kind of content that they would produce, their productions would fall under the sectors of television, animation and web based content.

4. Structure and Ownership
Dog Ears is an independendent cross media company.
This means that it is a privately owned company that has an output of product diversity, producing content in a diverse range of media.
Although Dog Ears does produce its own content, their most notable work is in collaboration with other companies.
This is evident in their collaboration with fellow Irish animation company, Cartoon Saloon.

5. Sources of Income
Dog Ears’ main source of income is from providing additional work to the shows of other animation studios.
Shows that they’ve worked on like “Puffin Rock” are broadcast on several mainstream TV channels like RTE and Nickelodeon. It’s also available for streaming on Netflix.
In addition to this the sales of the digital e- books and app for children that they’ve produced, would also be a source of their income.

6. Product Diversity
As I had mentioned before, Dog Ears creates content across various forms of media.
 They’re a self described cross media company, stating on their website; ”We are Dog Ears, a children’s media company, formed in 2010, who believe in characters and stories, everywhere – on paper, on tablets, devices and TV.”
This is quite an accurate description as their content ranges from animated cartoons made for television to digital books and apps made for tablets.

7. Profitability of Product Range
Seeing as the work that Dog Ears has produced on animated shows like “Puffin Rock” has been picked up by major networks like RTE and Nickelodeon, I’d imagine that Dog Ears has been quite successful with their work.
Their products seem very popular amongst their core demographic of younger children, so they’re making something that resonates with their target demographic, which is a good sign.

8. Competitors
Dog Ears competition lays mostly in other Irish animation studios. These competitor studios include;
Jam, the producers of “Roy”, a wildly popular children’s programme, consisting of a mix of animation and live action content. “Roy” has been broadcasted on RTE and CBBC
Geronimo Productions, the animation studio of “Nelly and Nora” the Cbeebies cartoon.
In addition to these studios, Kite Entertainment would be another competitor to Dog Ears. It’s another Irish animation studio which has made content like the children’s science programme, “Brain Freeze” broadcast on CBBC.

9. Rating as a Career Choice
My interest in Dog Ears as a media company stems from my enthusiasm for animation.
I’ve done some of my own animation work both for my college course and independently.
It would be very intriguing for me to see the animation process in a professional environment.
Although I’ve had a decent amount of experience working on animated projects, I’ve never done so in a real industry setting.
Seeing how an animation team cooperates and works together using industry standard equipment and technology, would provide me with valuable experience.
This experience could help inform any future animation work I may do.
It would teach me knowledge that would be essential towards finding an entry level position in the animation industry.