Toronto’s Blue Ant Media and Ottawa’s Gusto Worldwide Media have partnered with California-based FAST service Fawesome’s adding their channels to the Future Today-owned platform.

The channels are available in the U.S. through Fawesome and include Blue Ant Media’s Love Nature, which includes series such as Wildlife ER (pictured); Total Crime; HauntTV; and Love Pets along with Gusto Worldwide Media’s Gusto TV.

Blue Ant Media’s FAST launch on the platform is part of the company’s continued expansion of its FAST brands, a spokesperson told Playback Daily.

Christ Knight, CEO of Gusto Worldwide Media, told Playback Daily that Gusto TV is now on more than 40 platforms across more than 160 countries. The company is also developing original content in Spanish and is testing Hindi, French, German and Portuguese versions of Gusto TV.

Cargo Film & Releasing

Cargo Film & Releasing has picked up the U.S. distribution rights to Fathom Film Group’s It’s All Gonna Break, a documentary on the Canadian indie band Broken Social Scene.

The Stephen Chung-directed feature, which made its world premiere at New York’s 2024 Woodstock Film Festival, combines behind-the-scenes footage with interviews from the band’s members to document the origins of Broken Social Scene.

The film will have a U.S. theatrical run with special event screenings beginning in May, which will be followed by its debut on Bell Media’s Crave in early summer 2025.

In December 2024, Toronto’s Blue Ice Docs acquired Canadian theatrical and SVOD rights. It made its Canadian debut at the Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto in January.

It’s All Gonna Break was funded through the support of Crave, Telefilm Canada, the Canada Media Fund, Rogers Cable Network Fund and the Hot Docs Slaight Family Fund along with Ontario and federal tax credits.

Sphere Abacus

Sphere Abacus has acquired Ravenwood Productions’ supernatural thriller series Safehaven for worldwide distribution outside of the U.S.

Created by James Seale, and based on his graphic novel of the same name from Michael Bay’s 451 Media Group, the 10 x 60-minute, filmed in Canada, series is directed by Seale and Kaare Andrews. Safehaven is produced by Kevin V. Duncan, Stan Spry and Anthony Fankhauser and written by Seale, Sarah Larsen, Tamara Moulin, Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman and Adriana Capozzi.

Starring Georgie Murphy (Small Achievable Goals), Bob Frazer (Supergirl) and Gino Anania (The Porter), the series follows a rebellious teen who, after falling into a coma, is trapped in her demon-filled comic book Safehaven.

“Safehaven is a suspense-filled drama which will take viewers on a thrilling paranormal journey with multiple unexpected twists and turns,” said Sphere Abacus managing director Jonathan Ford in a statement. “We’re very pleased to have the opportunity to share this extended series with our international clients.”

On March 26, Bell Media announced that it had acquired a majority stake in the U.K.-based Sphere Abacus, which Sphere Media had purchased from Toronto’s Amcomri Entertainment in September of last year for $24.6 million. According to Bell Media, the acquisition serves as a launchpad for the company’s content distribution expansion with Abacus becoming the primary international distributor of Bell Media’s owned distribution rights.

Gravitas Ventures

L.A.-based media company Shout! Studios, which is backed by Oaktree Capital Management, has acquired Cleveland-based U.S. indie distributor Gravitas Ventures from Toronto’s Anthem Sports & Entertainment. Financial terms of the deal were not released.

The acquisition of Gravitas gives Shout! access to over 3,300 scripted, unscripted and sports-related feature films, documentaries, and television series. According to a release, Shout! and Gravitas will continue to operate as separate brands, with each continuing to actively distribute content from their respective catalogs, leveraging a scaled combined distribution organization that will help both brands better monetize content across traditional and digital channels.

“Gravitas represents the next step in our continued expansion of the catalog at Shout!,” said Shout! Studios CEO Garson Foos in a statement. “We are excited to join forces with the Gravitas team, and see several opportunities to expand distribution of the combined library.”

Jared Frandle, managing director for Oaktree’s special situations strategy, said the acquisition “represents another successful example of Shout’s ability to identify and execute upon attractive library acquisitions in the space. We are excited to continue to support the entire Shout! team as we pursue other organic growth and M&A opportunities going forward.”

Salem Partners acted as the exclusive financial and investment banking advisor to Anthem Sports & Entertainment and Gravitas Ventures, led by Ivar Combrinck. Sheppard Mullin acted as exclusive legal advisors to Anthem Sports & Entertainment, led by Shaun Clark and Aerin Snow. Greenberg Traurig acted as exclusive legal advisors to Shout! Studios, led by Ben Einbinder and Daniel Black.

With files from Realscreen

Image courtesy of Blue Ant Media