Blink49 Studios Acquires Lighthearted Entertainment

Lighthearted Entertainment, the studio behind Ready to Love, Are You The One? and Queen’s Court, has been acquired by Blink49 Studios.

Rob LaPlante and Jeff Spangler join Blink49 leadership as co-presidents of formats. They will report to Tara Long, global president of unscripted television at Blink49 Studios, and will oversee the company’s formats strategy across development, production and global growth initiatives.

“Lighthearted Entertainment has built a remarkable legacy in the unscripted space, and we’re excited to welcome them into the Blink49 family,” said John Morayniss, chief executive officer of Blink49 Studios. “This acquisition marks an important step in expanding our formats business and broadening the scope of what we can deliver to buyers worldwide. With Lighthearted’s creative leadership and approach to building scalable unscripted IP, Blink49 is well-positioned to accelerate growth across high-demand genres.”

The integration with Blink49 aims to provide expanded development support, greater access to international buyers and the ability to leverage Canada’s production ecosystem.

“With their proven track record of creating hit unscripted formats and long-running series, Lighthearted is a key addition to our unscripted group,” said Long. “Rob and Jeff’s creative vision and leadership will strengthen our development pipeline and unlock new opportunities across Canada and the international marketplace.”

“Joining forces with Blink49 is an exciting new chapter as we unite two strong creative engines,” said LaPlante and Spangler. “By combining our development, production, and distribution strengths, we’re positioned to expand our slate, grow our partnerships, and deliver high-impact unscripted formats around the world. We couldn’t be more excited to help lead Blink49 global formats into the future of unscripted.”