2025 was a transformative year for the folks at Blue Ant Media, which transitioned from a private media firm to a publicly traded company. It also acquired Insight Productions, Proper Television, MagellanTV and Thunderbird Entertainment, significantly increasing its creative footprint and distribution catalog and further asserting its commitment to providing premium factual content.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur expanded scale has diversified our content offering and set up a collective strength across our business units that will allow us to move into new genres, new platforms and new audiences while staying rooted in creating and finding audiences for great stories,\u201d co-presidents Mark Bishop and Matt Hornburg say.<\/p>\n
While global commissioning has slowed down, \u201cthe appetite for premium, high-quality content hasn\u2019t gone away,\u201d they note. \u201cIt has just become more selective.\u201d<\/p>\n
As such, the company\u2019s transformations last year have allowed it to keep up with buyers\u2019 selectivity by diversifying its offering. \u201cWe specialize in high-end factual and investigative history, like our self-commissioned series\u00a0Buried Evidence<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0History Unsolved: The Investigation Files<\/em>,\u201d they say, as well as true crime and mystery. Their newly expanded portfolio also now covers factual entertainment, lifestyle programming and docuseries such as\u00a0Amazing Race Canada<\/em>,\u00a0Extracted<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Great Canadian Baking Show<\/em>.<\/p>\n The distribution arm of the company, Blue Ant Rights, has been finding success with timely documentaries, including\u00a0Taylor<\/em>, about global superstar Taylor Swift, and\u00a0Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy<\/em>, about the\u00a0Friends<\/em>\u00a0star\u2019s life and addiction. The latter has sold to platforms in over 50 territories worldwide.<\/p>\n Across both their studios and rights businesses, Bishop and Hornburg have found a continued appetite for long-running series, spin-offs and format adaptations. \u201cHowever, each of these, in particular entertainment formats, do best when they offer fresh, local perspectives that audiences love,\u201d they note. \u201cWe\u2019ve found success in both adapting premium formats like\u00a0Old Enough!<\/em>,\u00a0Canada\u2019s Drag Race<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Amazing Race Canada<\/em>, as well as creating and exporting original formats such as Blue Ant\u2019s original sand sculpture competition series,\u00a0Race Against the Tide<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the fact that long-running series, spin-offs and formats have proven popular, Blue Ant Media has power through its production, distribution and channels businesses that allows it to partner for original IP and bring fresh ideas to the market. \u201cWe leverage opportunities across our production, distribution and global channels businesses to create customized co-finance plans to bring a series to market,\u201d Bishop and Hornburg say. \u201cWe have the ability to partner on original IP while leveraging creative financing to fill budget gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n The transformation the company underwent last year allows Bishop and Hornburg to feel positive about the year ahead. \u201cWe\u2019re optimistic that our growth as a company will allow us to invest in projects we believe in and take bigger risks,\u201d\u00a0they say. \u201cWe know few studios have the breadth of capabilities we do under one roof.\u201d<\/p>\n Importantly, \u201cwe\u2019ll need to continue embracing change\u201d and being adaptable, they add. \u201cThe way audiences consume content is constantly evolving, and we\u2019ll need to continue meeting them where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mark Bishop and Matt Hornburg, co-presidents of Blue Ant Media, discuss the year ahead for the company after a transformative 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":24579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,69],"tags":[345,8519,12153],"class_list":["post-24578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-features","category-top-stories","tag-blue-ant-media","tag-mark-bishop","tag-matt-hornburg","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n