Actress Maria Conchita Alonso attends the Los Angeles premiere of “God’s Not Dead: We The People” at Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City on September 21, 2021 in Universal City, California.
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Sony Pictures Entertainment and its streaming service Pure Flix are making room on the cable TV dial.
The firm’s streaming service, identified for faith-based content material, is merging with Great American Media, a current upstart cable rival to the Hallmark Channel.
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The mixture will give Pure Flix’s content material a spot in entrance of conventional TV viewers. It may even beef up the slate for Great American’s TV networks Great American Family and Great American Living.
As a part of the deal, which has but to shut, content material from each Pure Flix and Great American Media will cross one another’s platforms.
Sony acquired Pure Flix in December 2020 for an undisclosed sum. The service, which options content material such because the “God’s Not Dead” movie franchise and “The Chosen” sequence, prices $7.99 a month and has roughly 1 million subscribers within the U.S. and Canada.
The deal may even give Great American’s fledgling TV networks a streaming house.
Great American Media and its two cable TV networks had been launched in 2021 by Bill Abbott, former CEO of Crown Media, the father or mother of the Hallmark Channel. During his tenure at Hallmark, he helped flip the community right into a Christmas film behemoth, which continues to beckon among the highest cable TV scores throughout the vacation season.
Lori Loughlin is seen on December 31, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.
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Abbott left Hallmark in 2020 after backlash involving commercials that includes a same-sex wedding ceremony ceremony. The community pulled the adverts after going through strain from a conservative group, then reversed its course shortly after a homosexual rights advocacy group tried to launch an promoting boycott.
Soon after, Abbott launched Great American Media and signed offers with among the prime stars identified for his or her Hallmark Channel motion pictures and sequence.
Familiar faces at Great American Media
- Danica McKellar, who starred as Winnie Cooper within the unique “Wonder Years”
- Candace Cameron Bure, the longtime queen of Hallmark vacation movies who lately discovered herself mired in controversy over feedback relating to same-sex {couples}
- Lori Loughlin, the previous “Full House” forged member, who had been fired from Hallmark for her function within the 2019 school admissions scandal
Abbott will stay as CEO of the merged firms, and report back to the board of administrators. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, however Great American Media will maintain the bulk curiosity within the merged firm.
Great American Media took the step of launching its content material on conventional cable networks somewhat than a streaming service throughout a time when increasingly clients are fleeing cable bundles in favor of streaming. Cable subscriber losses continued to speed up in the latest quarter.
While the corporate’s networks can be found in 50 million pay TV houses, and touts that it’s the fastest-growing TV community based mostly on Nielsen scores, it has but to begin its personal streaming service.
Instead, the networks have been featured in web TV bundles, reminiscent of Frndly TV and Fubo. Great American Media additionally has a free, ad-supported channel for its content material.
Source: www.cnbc.com”
