Dealmaker of the Year 2023: Jamie Schouela

The executive has helped Blue Ant Media become a global leader in the FAST sector.

Over the years, Toronto-based Blue Ant Media has proven highly adept at expanding its global footprint across production, distribution and channel ownership.

So it comes as no real surprise that the company has emerged as a front-runner in the rapidly-growing FAST (free, ad-supported streaming TV) channel business.

Spearheaded by Blue Ant’s president, global channels and media, Jamie Schouela, the company has now launched eight FAST channels in 36 countries — and is generating around one billion minutes of viewing a month. It is poised to make its first foray in drama, with a new Love Drama channel, and sees further opportunities following the acquisition of marblemedia.

“We’re all about monetizing content,” Schouela tells Playback in regards to Blue Ant’s business model. “What FAST has brought us is a new window to generate revenue for both our owned IP and our partner IP. The fact we own library content and have experience as a channel operator means we have been able to scale quickly.”

Blue Ant’s FAST channels are mostly genre-based with Love Nature, Love Pets, Total Crime and Homeful among key brands. “Love Nature started out as a pay TV channel and has been one of our key drivers in FAST. Right now, it’s on 18 platforms in the U.S. alone. But 2023 was also a great year for our home and renovation channel Homeful. We acquired a 200-hour library from Mike Holmes, all of which has come into the Homeful schedule and helped grow the channel.”

Homeful is part of a strong alliance that Schouela has established with Vizio’s WatchFree+ platform in the U.S. Vizio director, content acquisition Greg Barnard has signed up several Blue Ant’s channels and is full of praise for Schouela: “His level-headedness, passion for Blue Ant content, and finding the right audience encouraged us to look beyond the typical partnership.”

Barnard says Schouela’s “collaborative nature, coupled with his leadership” encouraged the platform to sanction “an expanded partnership.” After initially signing up three channels, May saw Vizio come back for two more – Homeful and Love Pets.

In parallel, says Barnard, the partners have explored various revenue-driving business models to great effect: “We’ve worked with Blue Ant on some co-branded content stunts on our curated channels (Vizio’s own genre-based channels). We also worked with Blue Ant on exclusive premieres for key tent-poles like Fall Premieres and Spring Showcase in exchange for on-platform marketing.”

This year also saw Schouela and Blue Ant launch their first single franchise channel, Drag Race Universe, in partnership with World of Wonder, based on the growing RuPaul’s Drag Race universe. “There are so many fantastic versions of the Drag Race brand around the world that it was perfect for FAST. It’s been a great success,” he says.

Schouela has also accelerated Blue Ant’s international FAST rollout in the last year. Highlights include an expanded partnership with Samsung TV Plus – bringing channels such as Homeful, HauntTV and Love Pets to new territories. “Every forecast suggests dollars will keep Love Nature is available in more than 145 countries. moving into FAST globally,” he says. “The job right now is to build dial position and audience engagement.”

Blue Ant, of course, is not the only company targeting FAST. With many of the world’s major IP owners joining the gold rush, and platforms becoming more selective about channels, how can the company sustain its edge? “Exclusivity has been a big part of our growth,” says Schouela. “We pride ourselves on making sure at least 75% of the content on any channel is exclusive.”

The fact that Blue Ant is a pay TV operator in Canada also provides a strong content creation engine. This year, for example, the firm greenlit three series that will air on both its Canadian specialty TV networks and global free streaming platforms. “In addition,” adds Schouela, “it’s about staying laser-focused on areas like scheduling, marketing and how you package shows.”

Expanding on this point, Schouela says “it’s kind of old-school TV. Part of our strategy in FAST is delivering regular events for every channel, supported by marketing collateral to empower our platform partners to drive audiences to our channels. Great examples are the month-long Love Earth event on Love Nature that aligns with Earth Month and the month-long Spooktober event on HauntTV in October to celebrate Halloween.”

As for creative content packaging, “a great example is the Homes-giving marathon we created around Thanksgiving for our Homeful channel, with Mike Holmes content air all weekend.”

Initiatives like these are supported with organic marketing and paid marketing for marquee signature stunts, says Schouela. “The organic marketing includes a toolkit of assets for platform partners to use on-air and across social accounts. Paid marketing can include digital campaigns and also prime positioning on the platforms to maximize exposure and discoverability.”

Its new foray, getting into scripted with Love Drama — a partnership with Muse Entertainment – shows that the sky’s the limit for growth. “[Muse] own a ton of great IP in areas like romance and crime… movies of the week,” says Schouela. “FAST is getting more competitive, but there is still white space.”

Photo by Steve Craft

This story originally appeared in Playback‘s Winter 2023 issue