Blue Ant Media

Blue Ant Media is a Canadian broadcasting and media company. Based in Toronto and founded by Michael MacMillan, it owns television specialty channels in Canada, the Asia-Pacific region, and Latin America, a group of international television and digital media studios, and publishing assets in Canada.

Blue Ant Media Inc.
Private
IndustryMedia, Broadcasting, Television production
Founded2011
FoundersMichael MacMillan
HeadquartersToronto, Ontario,
Canada
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Michael MacMillan (CEO)
Robb Chase (CFO)
David Haslingden (Director)
Ward Platt (CEO, Kids & Global Networks)
Jamie Schouela (President, Canadian Media)
Laura Michalchyshyn (COO & Co-President, Content Production)
Sam Sniderman (Co-President, Content Production)
Solange Attwood, EVP, International Distribution
Astrid Zimmer, EVP, Legal & Business Affairs
Beatrice Lee (CEO, Blue Ant Media Asia-Pacific)
OwnerMichael MacMillan
WebsiteBlue Ant Media

History

The company was formed in 2011 by Michael MacMillan, former Chairman of Alliance Atlantis, with the acquisition of indie broadcaster Glassbox Television. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its name was chosen in reference to William Gibson's informal "Blue Ant" trilogy.[1]

On December 22, 2011, Blue Ant Media announced that Torstar had acquired a minority stake in the company.[2]

On December 21, 2011, Blue Ant Media announced that it had entered into an agreement to purchase specialty broadcaster High Fidelity HDTV.[3] It initially purchased 29.9% of the company with the remaining 70.1% acquired when the deal was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The acquisition was completed on August 1, 2012.[4][5]

On August 17, 2012, Blue Ant Media announced that it would be purchasing the specialty channel Bold from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for an undisclosed amount, conditional on government approval.[6]

After initially purchasing a 15% minority stake in Canadian publishing company Quarto Communications in the summer of 2011,[7] in December 2012, Blue Ant Media purchased the remaining shares in the company, which had been renamed Cottage Life Media.[8]

In April 2014, the company purchased a minority stake in the digital media company and multi-channel network Omnia Media.[9]

In November 2014, the company bought a majority stake in Choice TV, marking the group's first international expansion.[10][11][12]

In December 2015, Blue Ant Media and Smithsonian Networks teamed to launch Blue Skye Entertainment, a new UK-based company exclusively focused on 4K content.

In 2016, Blue Ant began to engage in the children's media market, including international sales of Make it Big, Make it Small (which was produced for Makeful), the web series Kings of Atlantis (in partnership with Omnia and the YouTube channel The Atlanticcraft) for YouTube Red. In May 2017, Blue Ant Media bought the Asia-Pacific broadcaster Racat Group, and named its consultant Ward Platt as Blue Ant Media's CEO of kids and global networks. Among its assets were the factual producer NHNZ, Singapore-based studio Beach House Pictures, Sydney-based Northern Pictures, mobile game developer Runaway Play, and a majority stake in ZooMoo, a Singapore-based, nature-oriented children's network operating in Asia and Latin America. Raja Khanna, Blue Ant's CEO of television and digital, considered the purchase to be complementary to its Canadian operations, given their involvement in factual and nature-oriented programming.[13][14][15]

In November 2017, Raja Khanna departed from the company.[16]

In February 2018, Omnia Media was renamed Blue Ant Digital Studios, coinciding with the launch of several new original series on Facebook Watch, and an accompanying expansion beyond video gaming content.[17] In October 2018, Blue Ant acquired the Toronto-based Saloon Media.[18]

On May 15, 2019, Blue Ant acquired the distribution rights to Jelly Jamm from Vodka Capital.[19]

Assets

Former
  • Antenna Pictures (London)
  • Choice TV (New Zealand)
  • CinemaWorld (Asia-Pacific)
    • CinemaWorld Asia Pte Ltd (Singapore)
  • HGTV (New Zealand)

References
  1. Watch out for the Blue Ant
  2. Torstar acquires 25 per cent stake in Blue Ant Media
  3. Blue Ant Media Enters Agreement to Acquire High Fidelity HDTV CNW press release 2011-12-21
  4. Blue Ant Completes Acquisition of High Fidelity HDTV Archived 2012-08-03 at the Wayback Machine, Broadcaster Magazine, August 1, 2012.
  5. Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2012-419 CRTC 2012-08-01
  6. Blue Ant to buy Bold Realscreen.com 2012-08-17
  7. Quarto, Blue Ant Media team up on specialty channel venture
  8. Blue Ant Media buys Cottage Life Media, terms not immediately available Canadian Business 2012-12-05
  9. "Canada's Blue Ant Media Invests in YouTube MCN Omnia Media". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  10. "Blue Ant takes majority stake in NZ's Choice TV". Real Screen. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
  11. "Blue Ant Acquires Controlling Interest in New Zealand Broadcaster". Broadcaster Magazine. 4 November 2014. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
  12. http://blueantmedia.ca/portfolio/choice-tv-2/
  13. "How Blue Ant will bolster its kids biz with Racat buy". KidScreen. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  14. "Blue Ant debuts 200 hours of kids content". KidScreen. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  15. "Blue Ant Media acquires Racat Group in effort to expand globally". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  16. "Raja Khanna to exit from Blue Ant Media". Realscreen. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  17. Chmielewski, Dawn C.; Chmielewski, Dawn C. (2018-02-20). "Omnia Media's Production Arm Renamed Blue Ant Digital As New Facebook Watch Series Debut". Deadline. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  18. "Blue Ant acquires Saloon Media". Realscreen. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  19. http://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/blue-ant-media-gobbles-up-jelly-jamm/
  20. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/google-exec-named-ceo-youtube-mcn-omnia-media-956003
  21. https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/omnia-media-wisecrack-acquisition-1203291619/
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