Blue Ant bets on itself as it embraces new distribution models

The publicly listed Canadian studio is headed to Mipcom for the first time with three fully self-financed projects, in addition to titles from newly acquired prodcos and a number of third-party projects, including a buzzy Channel 4 doc on Taylor Swift.

Toronto-based Blue Ant Media is arriving in Cannes later this month with the wind in its sails, boosted by its most robust slate of new offerings to date and deeper financial resources following its move to go public earlier this year.

Included in its slate of 300 hours of new content are three titles financed 100% internally – History Unsolved: The Investigation Files, Buried Evidence and Cosmic Vistas – demonstrating the company’s advantage in a challenging market, and ability to move projects they believe in forward.

“These are the type of shows that, even one or two years ago, we might have been put together through a range of pre-sales, coproductions or distribution advances,” says Ben Barrett, Blue Ant’s London-based global head of content financing and partnerships.

“But we’ve seen the market for these longer-running factual-type programmes change so much, especially in the US in recent years, that we wanted to put our experience and deep understanding of the marketplace to good use, and take more control in bringing these projects to market.”

History Unsolved: The Investigation Files (10×60’) looks at enduring historical mysteries through the lens of modern-day investigative techniques; Buried Evidence (10×60’) examines remarkable archaeological finds and how they have reshaped our understanding of history; and Cosmic Vistas (8×60’) explores extraordinary achievements in mankind’s mission to better understand space. The latter is a reboot of a Blue Ant show from a decade ago, which Barrett said is being reimagined because the original has continued to sell so well.

All three projects are developed, financed and produced via Blue Ant Studios, which is increasingly inclined to bet on itself in a tough market. It is always done in a considered, strategic way, adds Barrett, who says feedback about the needs of international buyers gave Blue Ant the confidence to fully finance these projects internally.

While controlling the destiny of its IP has been a strategy taking shape at the Canadian company for many years, it has started to come more sharply into focus over the past couple of years. “We’re just taking a bit more of a proactive role in moving things forward,” he explains. “Then, obviously, that gives us the ability to build potentially long-running, returning franchises, with bespoke take-to-market strategies for each. Each project has a different finance plan – sometimes there are pre-sales in place before market launch, while other times they have a completely unencumbered rights footprint.”

Blue Ant’s 2025 Mipcom slate also includes an eye-catching two-part documentary Taylor (Sandpaper Films for the UK’s Channel 4), which digs into the career of Taylor Swift from her childhood, including rare early tapes, through to today; The Great Art Fraud (2×60’, Blue Ant Studios for the BBC) about the story of overnight art world sensation Inigo Philbrick, and his stunning fall from grace; and The Psychic Swindle (1×60’, Blue Ant Studios for CBC) about an intricate mail-order psychic scam.

Co-financing also continues to be an important avenue for getting projects over the line, adds Barrett, with Blue Ant also operating nimbly in this model. Two examples include historical docuseries Cold War Spies (6×60′), produced by Australia’s Perpetual Entertainment, and natural history Wild Science (6×60’), produced by New York-based Big Media and co-financed with one of Blue Ant’s global channel brands, Love Nature, exemplifying the company’s ability to get premium factual content across the line

“This is a slightly different model, where we’re basically partnering with a third-party production company on a show that may or may not have a broadcaster attached, but it’s an idea that we really believe in, and [the producer] can typically bring some financing towards whether it’s a local tax credit or some sort of deferral,” he says, adding that in the case of Wild Science, Big Media brought a couple of pre-sales to the table too. For both projects, Barrett says Blue Ant was involved in a “majority-financing but keeping as broad a range of rights available so we can have maximum flexibility on how we take them to market.”

Blue Ant is also continuing to make inroads into the US market, where broadcasters and platforms are showing a growing willingness to share rights. That flexibility is enabling producers and distributors to get major US buyers on board for fixed deal terms, while being able to get those rights back to exploit in the future, he says.

“We’re finding that broadcasters are much more open to taking a shorter first window and sharing rights on different platforms and in different windows. That really gives us the ability to have greater control of a piece of content from creative inception right through to commercial exploitation,” says Barrett. “With more windowing opportunities available, we’re also able to monetise this content across a range of digital platforms, both on our own channels and on third-party services.”

Blue Ant is heading to Mipcom for the first time as a publicly traded company after completing its reverse takeover of Boat Rocker over the summer – a move that has given it added production firepower in the form of newly acquired prodcos Insight Productions, Proper Television and Jam Filled Entertainment.

In addition to bolstering its production arsenal, the acquisitions have also added heft to Blue Ant’s distribution business, with several new titles from those prodcos being added to the Mipcom slate. Among them are lifestyle series Andy’s East Coast Kitchen Crawl (12×30’, Proper TV), cooking show Mary Makes it Easy (50×30’, Proper TV) and culinary competition show Cook At All Costs (8×60′, Boat Rocker Studios and Insight Productions).

Barrett adds that “a lot more” content from Insight and Proper TV will be coming through next year. However, while acknowledging that “what we have coming through the internal pipeline does impact what we’re looking for from third parties,” he says it won’t change Blue Ant’s desire to do international deals and partnerships.

So, after another relatively bruising year for the unscripted TV business, how does Barrett view the opportunities in the market?

While the veteran distribution exec acknowledges the challenges being felt across all parts of the ecosystem are very real, he says companies can still grow despite the tricky market backdrop. Indeed, in terms of turnover, Blue Ant’s distribution arm is enjoying one of its best-ever years, he notes. “We are growing, and we’ve traditionally been a predominantly non-scripted business, so the unscripted business can’t be in too unhealthy a state. Having said that, we’re also always exploring growth opportunities in other genres

Genres beyond unscripted are growing in priority for the company and Blue Ant’s dedicated kids and family team is bringing animated preschool series Tralala (52×7’), an international co-production between Blue Ant Studios and New Zealand’s Stretchy for CBC and Sky NZ, to Cannes this month.

The flexibility and creativity in its dealmaking are enabling that growth, Barrett says, with Blue Ant not only looking to bring distribution advances but also investing directly in production and bringing in co-financing partners. “We’re open for business,” he says. “We’re acquiring, producing and selling more than we ever have, and we want to be working with as many different partners as possible.”