Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment Acquires 1091 Pictures

Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of 1091 Media, comprising its distribution business 1091 Pictures.

The purchase price is approximately $15.6 million in cash, Series A perpetual preferred stock and Class A Common stock.

1091 Pictures’ library houses some 4,000 movies and TV series, including The Ghost of Peter Sellers and Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, as well as A Kid from Coney Island, The Dawn Wall, The Last Blockbuster, Pharma Bro, Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind, The Phenomenon, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Christine and The Overnight. 

The acquisition also comes with established FAST and AVOD channels in specific verticals, with approximately 1 billion yearly ad impressions. 

“The 1091 Pictures team transformed their large content library into a scalable, modern distribution platform with a compelling slate of channels that are a pragmatic addition to our existing assets,” said David Fannon, president of Screen Media Ventures, a Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment company and the supplier of content to the Crackle Plus streaming services. “There are great synergies between our two companies. Over time, joining 1091 Pictures’ acquisition and distribution team with Screen Media’s team, leveraging the impressive infrastructure 1091 Pictures built for digital fulfillment, and folding the 1091 Pictures-owned channel business into the Crackle Plus networks will make this a mutually beneficial and smooth transition. The 1091 Pictures’ pipeline of over 350 titles per year will provide a steady supply of new content to the company for years to come.”

“This is the next evolution in our content library strategy,” said Elana Sofko, chief strategy officer for Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. “The genre content with loyal fan bases from 1091 Pictures includes music, over a dozen different sports, paranormal, and much more, enabling us to continue to grow both our streaming services and our FAST channels. We will also continue growing the business that the 1091 Pictures team started and augment it with additional opportunities from the combined catalog.”

“We are thrilled to be joining forces with the Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment and Screen Media team,” said Eric Min, general manager and head of content for 1091 Pictures. “We are bullish that the scale and reach of the combined teams starts us on an exciting journey to be able to further capitalize on this strong amalgamation of assets.”