Mike Morris, former managing director of Channel 4’s commercial arm 4Rights, has launched Cue Card Media, a new consultancy and IP development venture.

The company has private backing from Paul Higgins and Will Clarke, who founded Optimum releasing together (Clarke now runs Altitude Film Entertainment).  

Cue Card will concentrate on consulting for rights owners, distributors, broadcasters and new media platforms in the development and exploitation of their IP and rights catalogue including sourcing investment for development; and independent aggregation of rights for producers, broadcasters and distributors to significantly increase their value.

Morris said: “At 4Rights in just five years, we built up a highly profitable £50m-turnover business that was capable of funding and developing world beating properties such as The Inbetweeners Movie, the UK’s biggest comedy film, and The Snowman and the Snowdog, the cornerstone of Channel 4’s recent Christmas schedule.

“Cue Card Media has similar ambitions and will offer a powerful, independent and flexible service to help rights owners maximize the value of their IP and get their ideas to market.’

He previously worked at Itel, Yorkshire Television Enterprises and Saatchi and Saatchi.