Cookie Jar Group

Cookie Jar Group logo.

**Cookie Jar Group** was a Canadian media production and distribution company. The company was first established in 1976 as **Cinar**, a Montreal-based studio that was heavily involved in children's entertainment. The company's business model, which included the licensing of its properties into educational markets, had a significant impact on its success; by 1999, Cinar held CDN$1.5 billion of the overall children's television market.

In the 2000s, Cinar became the subject of multiple business scandals, including accusations that the company had used offshore accounts to transfer money out of the company, had plagiarized the concept of one of its series, and had obfuscated the involvement of American screenwriters in its productions in order to continue receiving Canadian tax credits for domestic productions. Over a decade later, these scandals would result in criminal charges, convictions, and fines for co-founder Ronald Weinberg, and three other suspects.

Cinar was sold in 2004 for $190 million to a group led by Nelvana founder Michael Hirsh, and re-named Cookie Jar Group. The company went to acquire the American animation studio DiC Entertainment in 2008. On August 20, 2012, DHX Media announced its intent to acquire Cookie Jar Group, in a deal that would make DHX the largest independent owner of children's television programming. The sale completed on October 22, 2012. Cookie Jar Group continues to operate as an in-name-only unit of DHX Media.

## History

### As Cinar

 File:Cinar Logo.svg
After their 1976 meeting in New Orleans, future spouses Micheline Charest and Ronald A. Weinberg organized an event for a women's film festival, and worked at distributing foreign films to US theatres. The couple moved to New York City and formed Cinar, a film and television distribution company.

In 1984, Cinar changed their focus from media distribution to production and moved operations to Montreal, where they concentrated on children's television programming (including *Animal Crackers*, *Emily of New Moon*, *Mona the Vampire*, and *The Wombles*), as well as the English and French dubs of the anime series *Adventures of the Little Koala* and *The Wonderful Wizard of Oz* and the Spain-originating TV series *The World of David the Gnome*, and the English dub of *Ultra Seven*. As a production company, Cinar was also involved in the work of *Are You Afraid of the Dark?*, *The Busy World of Richard Scarry*, *Madeline*, *The Real Story of Happy Birthday to You*, *The Adventures of Paddington Bear*, *Space Cases*, *The Shoe People* and its most famous work, *Arthur*, *Zoboomafoo* and *Caillou*.

The firm became a public company in September 1993. By 1999, Cinar boasted annual revenues of $150 million (CAD) and owned about $1.5 billion (CAD) of the children's television market. In 1996, Cinar acquired the library of the British animation studio FilmFair, and closed it in 1998. In February 1999, Cinar acquired the film library of Leucadia Film Corporation.

#### Scandal

The success of Charest, Weinberg, and Cinar ended in March 2000, when an internal audit revealed that about $122 million (US) was invested into Bahamian bank accounts without the board members' approval. Cinar had also paid American screenwriters for work while continuing to accept federal grants and tax credits for the production of Canadian content. The names of Canadian citizens (generally non-writers connected to Cinar, including Charest's sister Helene) were credited for the works. While the province of Quebec did not file criminal charges, Cinar denied any wrongdoing, choosing instead to pay a settlement to Canadian and Quebec tax authorities of $17.8 million (CAD) and another $2.6 million (CAD) to Telefilm Canada, a Canadian federal funding agency. The value of Cinar's stock plummeted, and the company was soon delisted.

There was some speculation that Hasanain Panju, CFO was the mastermind behind the investment scheme along with John Xanthoudakis of Norshield Investment Group and Lino Matteo of Mount Real Corporation. It was alleged that Charest and Weinberg (and later Panju) used Cinar as a 'piggy bank' and schemed to transfer funds out from the company through a series of complicated transactions to their own offshore holding companies.

## Television

### Cookie Jar TV

*Main article: Cookie Jar TV*
At the time of Cookie Jar's acquisition of the company, DIC had been programming a weekend morning block for CBS known as *KEWLopolis*. On February 24, 2009, it was announced that CBS had renewed its contract with Cookie Jar for the block through 2012. For the 2009-10 television season, the block was re-branded as Cookie Jar TV. Cookie Jar TV was discontinued after the 2012-13 television season; it was succeeded in 2013-14 by *CBS Dream Team*, which is programmed by Litton Entertainment.

### Cookie Jar Toons

*Main article: Cookie Jar Toons*
On November 1, 2008, This TV launched airing Cookie Jar's daily children's programming block ***Cookie Jar Toons*** which provided children's and E/I-oriented programming.

### Cookie Jar Kids Network

*Main article: Cookie Jar Kids Network*
***Cookie Jar Kids Network*** (formerly ***DiC Kids Network***) was a children's programming block that aired selected Cookie Jar programs on local FOX, MyNetworkTV, and independent stations to provide them with a source of Educational/Informational (E/I) programming required by American broadcast standards. Syndicated by Ascent Media, it ceased broadcasting on September 17, 2011.

### Television programs

* *A Bunch of Munsch*
* *A Miss Mallard Mystery*
* *Animal Crackers*
* *Arthur* (Seasons 1-15)
* *Busytown Mysteries*
* *Caillou*
* *C.L.Y.D.E.*
* *Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot* (Seasons 2 & 3)
* *Deadtime Stories*
* *Debra!*
* *Ella the Elephant*
* *Emily of New Moon*
* *Gerald McBoing-Boing*
* *Johnny Test* (Season 2-6)
* *Kung Fu Dino Posse*
* *Madeline*
* *Magi-Nation*
* *Mona the Vampire*
* *Mudpit*
* *Mumble Bumble*
* *Postcards from Buster*
* *Potatoes and Dragons*
* *Scan2Go*
* *Spider Riders*
* *Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures*
* *The Adventures of Paddington Bear*
* *The Babaloos*
* *The Busy World of Richard Scarry*
* *The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures*
* *The Doodlebops*
* *The Little Lulu Show*
* *The New Adventures of Nanoboy*
* *The Wonderful Wizard of Oz*
* *The World of David the Gnome*
* *Upstairs, Downstairs Bears*
* *Wimzie's House*
* *World of Quest*
* *Zoboomafoo*

## External links

* Cinar on IMDB Pro (subscription required)
* Cookie Jar Entertainment on IMDB Pro (subscription required)

Template:Animation industry in Canada
Template:Animation industry in the United States