As Toronto-based Blue Ant Media continues to grow its presence internationally, the company must have a stake across all types of media, says CEO Michael MacMillan.

On Monday Blue Ant Media announced it had acquired a majority stake in New Zealand broadcaster Choice TV as part of the company’s ongoing effort to broaden its operations outside of Canada. Earlier this year, the company also made a minority investment invested in L.A.-based multi-channel network Omnia Media.

“We’re technologically agnostic…this is a linear channel, and that’s terrific, but we believe that we’re going to be competing internationally using a variety of different technologies – both the old ones and the new ones,” MacMillan told Playback Daily, adding that linear channels continue to be the dominant way most programming is consumed.

While New Zealand may be geographically about as far as you can get from Canada, the cultural similarities between the countries were one of the reasons why Blue Ant decided to invest in Choice TV, MacMillan said. Both are English-speaking, highly urbanized countries with strong film and TV industries, he explained, adding that the two countries also have an existing coproduction agreement.

“At Blue Ant, we see ourselves as a company that makes and presents and distributes interesting content internationally. We’re based in Canada, but our focus and our appetite and how we think about our future is very much international,” MacMillan said.

With the investment, Blue Ant will help Choice TV grow its current broadcast slate with more acquired and commissioned programming, MacMillan said. While there are no immediate plans for Blue Ant to be producing original content through coproduction agreements with Choice TV, the two channels will likely share programming.

“Because their program categories have a significant overlap with ours, there is some opportunity to use that material in both countries,” MacMillan said. Like Blue Ant’s specialty channels, Choice TV’s programming focuses on travel, outdoors, food, home decor, real estate, drama and comedy.