CBS Corporation announced today a strategic partnership with Kapital Entertainment, an independent production company founded and led by Aaron Kaplan. As part of the agreement, CBS Corporation has acquired an ownership stake in Kapital Entertainment. CBS will provide co-financing for Kapital to invest in its future programming and serve as its worldwide distributor.
Kapital will continue to operate as an independent production company - separate from
CBS Television Studios and the
CBS Television Network - and maintain its ability to sell to all buyers in the television marketplace. Kaplan will continue to run Kapital Entertainment as its chief executive officer.
"CBS is a content company, and this new venture immediately establishes another source to create more programming assets for our distribution pipeline," said Leslie Moonves, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
CBS Corporation. "Aaron is a talented and creative producer, a skilled program packager and a very smart businessperson. We're excited to build this partnership together."
"This venture enables Kapital to continue matching a creator's vision to the broadcast, cable or streaming home best suited for their project. And we will continue to work with all of our valued studio partners in the process," said Kaplan. "At the same time, I have the support of an incredible media company at
CBS Corporation, led by Leslie Moonves, whose creative and business accomplishments are unmatched."
The first new project in the partnership is the Dana Klein and Marc Feuerstein pilot "9J, 9K and 9L," which is being co-produced by Kapital with
CBS Television Studios for CBS.
Kapital is a prominent independent production company with current series such as "Santa Clarita Diet" (Netflix), "Divorce" (HBO), "American Housewife" (ABC), "Secrets and Lies" (ABC), "The Chi" (SHOWTIME) and "Life in Pieces" (CBS). For the upcoming television season, the company is currently producing seven pilots across broadcast and cable networks.
Top creative partnerships for Kapital include a joint venture with the London-based Merman, whose founder, Sharon Horgan, is one of the preeminent creative talents in Europe as a creator, writer, actor and director. The joint venture produces "Divorce" for HBO. Merman is the production company for the critically acclaimed series "Catastrophe" for Amazon.
Kapital also has recently formed production deals with Wendi Trilling's TrillTV, which has landed the pilots "9J, 9K and 9L" and "Hannah Royce's Questionable Choices," both at CBS; and Tracy Katsky's KatCo., whose projects include "Santa Clarita Diet" and the pilots "Brown Girls" (Freeform), "Linda from HR" (FOX) and the animated comedy "Rusted Justice" (FOX).
Kaplan's team at Kapital includes accomplished creative executive Dana Honor, who joined the company recently after serving as Senior Vice President, Comedy Development for 20th Century
FOX Television. At 20th, she developed series such as "The Last Man on Earth" (FOX), "Speechless," "Fresh Off the Boat" and the Emmy Award-winning "Modern Family" (ABC).
Kaplan has operated Kapital as a self-funded company since 2009, building the company into a leading, independent supplier of content. Prior to Kapital, Aaron was head of scripted content at the William Morris Agency, where he also served on the board of directors.
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