Executive shifts are afoot at Wow! Unlimited Media—parent company of Frederator Networks and Mainframe Studios—as chief creative officer Fred Seibert (pictured) resigns from his position at the publicly traded company in order to return to independent production.

In addition to leaving Wow!, Seibert will step down from his role as CEO of New York-based Frederator, which he founded in 1997.

With Seibert’s departure, Wow! CEO Michael Hirsh and Wow! COO Neil Chakravarti will add those same roles at Frederator to their remits. While Seibert’s exit will be effective as of November 27, the company said he will stay involved as an executive producer on current Frederator projects Castlevania and Bee & PuppyCat, in addition to collaborating on other upcoming titles.

News of the resignation comes as the company reported Q2 revenues of US$8.7 million (CAD$11.5 million), down significantly from US$20.3 million (CAD$26.6 million) in the same quarter a year ago.

Wow! said the revenue downturn was primarily due to decreased views generated by its multi-channel network Channel Frederator Network following the termination of an agreement with ADME.

On the production front, Wow! said 200 half-hours of episodic animation and seven animated movie specials are currently in production or contracted.

Wow!’s slate of in-production projects include: season four of Castlevania (produced by Frederator), with deliveries due to begin in Q4, as well as Madagascar: A Little Wild (52 x 22 minutes), produced by Vancouver-based Mainframe Studios for DreamWorks Animation; seasons five through eight of Octonauts (produced for Silvergate Media); and Made by Maddie (also for Silvergate).

From Playback