Campaign Profile

Blue Ant is bringing a larger acquisitions slate, a growing scripted offer and more flexible windowing and partnership models to Mipcom, as executives across its acquisitions, distribution, channels and streaming businesses explain how the combined operation is changing what it can offer buyers.

Blue Ant will head to Mipcom in Cannes later this month with the combined weight of its acquisitions, distribution, channels and streaming businesses behind its pitch to buyers.

In interviews with C21, Barnaby Shingleton, senior VP of acquisitions at Blue Ant Rights & Streaming; Bryan Gabourie, exec VP of content monetisation and head of Americas at the same division; and Craig Junner, exec VP and general manager of global channels and streaming, explain how the pieces now fit together.

“Our focus for new acquisitions is twofold,” says Shingleton.

The first strand is to continue delivering the factual content buyers expect from Blue Ant, including crime series such as Killers: Caught on Camera; history and engineering titles including How to Survive History and Engineering From Above, now in its second season; and wildlife programming from the Love Nature channels.

The second is programming with broader reach. “We know there’s an appetite for content that has ‘cut through’ for broader audiences, either via distinctive formats or because of talent or well-known stories which can be told in a fresh, new way,” he says.

On that front, Blue Ant is launching a third season of Bafta-winning The Jury: Murder Trial and a new South America-set adventure series from Levison Wood. It is also introducing two factual series, Salvage Rescue Down Under from WildBear Entertainment and Cruising Paradise: Above & Below Deck from CrackIt Productions, “which we hope will grow into distinctive franchises.”

The headline acquisition is feature documentary The Trial of Alec Baldwin, directed by Rory Kennedy. “The combination of Rory Kennedy’s filmmaking and the extraordinary access to a story that attracted worldwide attention is a combination we think will be irresistible for audiences,” says Shingleton.

Blue Ant is also extending its relationship with historian Bettany Hughes through two new series that Shingleton says will deliver “some extraordinary archaeological revelations that will transform our understanding of the dawn of civilisation.”

Scripted is becoming a bigger part of the offer, tied to the expansion of Blue Ant’s studio business, which has brought in the creators of Crew Girl and Kim’s Convenience.

“It makes sense for us to build a scripted distribution business alongside,” says Shingleton, who adds that Blue Ant is working with both its own studios and independent producers to build a catalogue of commercial series.

Shingleton says the company is also open to partnerships beyond traditional television. “Blue Ant is a digital business, and we understand the different ways great content can reach audiences,” he says.

For Gabourie, the biggest change for buyers is the ability to discuss the full range of Blue Ant’s capabilities at once.

“We’re able to approach our partners with the full scope of Blue Ant’s capabilities in one conversation, allowing for a more comprehensive and fruitful conversation about opportunities to work together,” he says.

He gives the example of a factual licensing package built around new series Beyond the Mask: The Story of Tutankhamun and Pharaohs: Rise & Fall. The same content could also underpin a jointly developed channel drawing on Blue Ant’s catalogue and the brand equity of its streaming services.

In some cases, a partner could take an exclusive premiere of a Blue Ant Studios original before the title moves to a Blue Ant channel within the partner’s own environment.

“There’s a wide range of capability Blue Ant can bring to the table, and that’s one of our biggest strengths,” says Gabourie.

Traditional licensing remains central, but Gabourie says partners are demanding greater flexibility. That could mean multi-territory agreements or coordinated, windowed launches with more than one partner in a region, giving linear rights to one buyer and VoD rights to another. Blue Ant’s own services may also form part of the windowing sequence.

He says buyers are driving the shift. “Partners are trying to make content work across services through a variety of innovative business models, and under quickly evolving market conditions,” he explains.

“The flexibility required to bring premiere content to market has led to much more creative windowing models, and multiple platforms partnering within a region in order to bring a premiere to the broadest audience possible across multiple rights windows.

“Structuring ‘fast follow’ runs across traditional linear, subscription and ad-supported platforms within a single year is becoming increasingly common.”

Gabourie argues the approach broadens a programme’s reach rather than cannibalising partners’ opportunities: “It actually increases the total audience and awareness for that programme and their respective platforms.”

Among the titles Blue Ant will use to illustrate the breadth of its offer in Cannes, Gabourie describes The Trial of Alec Baldwin as “a strong example of a premium acquisition” for high-profile documentary launches.

History series Secret Ops: Revealed and How to Survive History are both Blue Ant Studios productions commissioned for the company’s own portfolio and available for international licensing, while Boss Shark: Chasing Giants, produced by WildBear for Love Nature, represents the independent producer side of the business.

The slate also includes true crime title The Poison Seller, which follows an international investigation into an online poison business.

“The best deals are built upon what the buyer wants to achieve and the rights available in their market, whether that involves a premiere partnership, a package of programming or a broader relationship,” says Gabourie.

Junner says the same approach applies to coproductions, with Boss Shark again providing an example of programming made for a Blue Ant brand that can also be offered to international buyers.

“We start with the programme and the audience, then work out which partners and services can help bring it to life,” he says.

On a coproduction, Blue Ant’s channels may provide a commissioning commitment and a home in certain territories, while another broadcaster or platform contributes funding and reaches an audience elsewhere. Distribution can then build the wider international opportunity.

Windowing “needs to be considered from the beginning,” Junner adds. “Partners need clarity about where and when they can launch, and how availability will be managed. We consider ourselves incredibly creative dealmakers, so there is no cookie-cutter approach, but we focus on transparency and building long-term, flexible partnerships.”

FAST is also part of the conversation. Blue Ant operates more than a dozen multiplatform FAST channels distributing niche content to millions of viewers worldwide.

Its channel brands span genres including true crime through Total Crime; paranormal investigations through HauntTV; wildlife and natural history through Love Nature and Wildest; home renovation through Homeful; and military history through History & Warfare. They are available across major streaming platforms.

On the rapid growth of this part of the business, Junner says: “FAST has added another way to reach viewers and generate value from programming.”

Depending on the rights and market, that could mean licensing to an existing service, supplying a branded channel or providing a later window for a title that has already run elsewhere.

Junner says Blue Ant is placing more emphasis on the performance of each service, including “how people discover it, how long they watch and whether the economics support continued investment.”

He also addresses the growing importance of the creator economy, describing YouTube as “an important destination in its own right.”

“A creator with an engaged audience has already built something valuable, and any partnership should start with understanding that audience and what keeps it coming back,” he adds.

Blue Ant’s digital team currently focuses on adapting and optimising content from its channel brands for YouTube, an effort Junner says has built expertise that could benefit creator partners, particularly in localisation.

“We’re working across 11 languages,” says Junner, noting that the company is exploring ways to combine established creators’ audience relationships with its experience in production, rights, distribution and genre brand-building.

He says the shared structure – encompassing acquisitions, distribution, channels and streaming under one roof – means the businesses now work from the same starting point.

“The difference is we can bring those perspectives together at inception,” says Junner, with acquisitions fostering producer relationships, distribution contributing buyer and market knowledge, and channels and streaming providing direct insight into programming and audience trends, including on YouTube.

“That gives us the full picture and allows us to refine our content strategy based on global audience insights and regional nuance. This approach maximises the potential success for our production partners and ensures our clients get the highest quality and relevant content for their unique markets.

“Simply put, our core goal is to leverage these combined insights to better serve our clients, audiences and production partners,” says Junner.