Blue Ant Media acquires Toronto’s marblemedia

The acquisition marks a significant consolidation move in Canadian media as the two companies merge their production and distribution businesses.

Blue Ant Media has acquired marblemedia and its distribution arm Distribution360 (D360) in a significant consolidation move within the Canadian media landscape.

The Toronto-headquartered producer, distributor and channel operator announced Thursday (Aug. 10) it is acquiring Blown Away prodco marblemedia and D360 for an undisclosed sum.

The pact will see Blue Ant’s North American production labels — Blue Ant Studios, Saloon Media, and Look Mom! Productions — merge with marblemedia’s production operations, according to a news release. Blue Ant’s distribution division, Blue Ant International, will also combine with D360.

Marblemedia co-founders Matthew Hornburg and Mark Bishop will oversee the new “super-charged” studio as co-presidents, and will report to Blue Ant Media CEO and co-founder Michael MacMillan.

On the production front, the deal brings together two sizeable forces in the unscripted space, with Blue Ant’s assorted labels behind such projects as Canada’s Drag Race, produced with World of Wonder for  Crave; Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies for Peacock and Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks for Prime Video. Marblemedia, meanwhile, has carved out a unique space with niche competition formats such as Blown Away and Drink Masters for Netflix, A Cut Above for Discovery and CBC’s Race Against the Tide. The deal doesn’t include Blue Ant’s Singapore-based production subsidiary, Beach House Pictures, which will continue to operate independently.

Both companies also boast strong rights businesses, with Blue Ant International having more than 5,000 hours of content across genres under its umbrella (including the more than 900 hours gained from the acquisition of London-headquartered Drive Media Rights in 2022), and London-headquartered D360 represents close to 2,000 hours of content and formats.

Sam Sniderman, previously Blue Ant’s co-president of global production, will serve as Blue Ant Media’s chief commercial officer, working closely with MacMillan and company CFO Robb Chase on business development, partnerships and M&A. Laura Michalchyshyn, meanwhile, will continue her duties as chief creative officer.

“With Mark and Matt leading our combined studios and rights business, Blue Ant Media is well positioned in its growth as an international media company with production, rights and an established global channels division all operating at scale,” said MacMillan in a statement.

“Building this new merged production and distribution studio will bring together our talented teams who have a shared vision and belief that original content and rich IP are the greatest differentiator,” said Hornburg and Bishop in a joint statement.

(L to R: Matthew Hornburg, Michael MacMillan, Mark Bishop. Photo credit: Steve Craft)

This story originally appeared in Realscreen