Copyright Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: Blue Ant Media Corp, the Canadian company behind pay-TV channel and international streamer Love Nature, bought factual SVOD MagellanTV for $12M last month. There look to be more deals in the works as the Canada-listed producer-distributor-channels and streaming business ramps up. “MagellanTV was really about strengthening our factual position,” Carlyn Staudt, the company’s President, Global Channels and Streaming, tells Deadline. “Between Love Nature and the factual bouquet with MagellanTV, we’ve really done that. “Now, it’s about expanding further into other content categories and other genres. You’ll see Blue Ant in the market and looking to diversify. We’re open for business in other genres and categories.” The MagellanTV deal came after a reverse takeover that saw Blue Ant Studios acquire several assets from production group Boat Rocker Studios and Blue Ant list on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Known for its factual output, Blue Ant has services spanning various docs and lifestyle categories on the channels side, with MagellanTV bolstering that group. Former Nat Geo exec Staudt was upped last year and now oversees all of the channels, FAST, AVOD and SVOD services at Blue Ant. The Washington-based exec breaks down the thinking behind the MagellanTV deal. “The acquisition of Magellan felt like the right moment to enhance our monetization opportunities across SVOD, in addition to what we do in AVOD and FAST, and the pay business that we have through Love Nature,” she said. “It really strengthened our position as a factual leader.” MagellanTV was founded in 2018 by National Geographic, PBS and Discovery vets Greg Diefenbach and Thomas Lucas. Diefenbach joined Blue Ant in the wake of the deal as its EVP, Streaming, overseeing the company’s direct-to-consumer and SVOD operations. The plan now for MagellanTV is to expand its international footprint. “We saw that Greg and the team had an established a distribution base in the U.S., which is one of the most important markets in terms of monetization,” Staudt said. “That paired with our global infrastructure meant that we could unlock MagellanTV and really optimize it globally. We have offices in London, Sydney and Singapore, and we’re selling all throughout Latin America.” New Ant Media The agreement for Boat Rocker Media in August, adding Insight Productions, Jam Filled Entertainment, and Proper Television to the fold (the remainder of the Boat Rocker Studios business was spun out into a new entity that will be run by former management), was a gamechanger. “This is a transformative moment for Blue Ant Media,” founder and CEO Michael MacMillan said at the time. “As a newly public company, we are entering our next phase of growth.” Staudt says having production, sales and channels and platforms divisions, means more ways of getting projects up and running and distributed. “We have more commissioning power than ever,” Staudt says. “We have the ability to bring financing from the channels side and then combine it with studio advances. We have more firepower than ever to do creative financing. We can meet producers in the marketplace and say ‘We’re open for business.’” She continues: “One of the hardest parts of getting projects greenlit right now is getting that first part of funding, and we can do that. We can be the channel that triggers it, but we can also bring distribution advances to the table.” With shareholders wanting to see growth, the Blue Ant exec team are looking at expanding through organic growth as well as M&A. “We’re being very thoughtful about moves that we make but it is a time of expansion and growth for us,” Staudt says.
