Chicken Soup acquires SVoD service

US producer and distributor Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment (CSSE) has acquired SVoD service Pivotshare.

The acquisition will allow CSSE to launch its own SVoD business based on Pivotshare’s various existing online channels, which focus on categories such as music, sports, religion, arts and culture, lifestyle and family.

Pivotshare has approximately 25,000 subscribers and 28,000 hours of programming, claiming to generate approximately US$2.5m in annual revenue.

The deal values Pivotshare at US$4.35m, which CSSE has paid for with US$257,000 in cash and by transferring 74,235 CSSE shares to Pivotshare shareholders.

Scott W Seaton, vice-chairman of CSSE, said Pivotshare is expected to generate approximately US$1m per year in cost savings for the company.

“This multichannel online network comes with pre-existing content, much of which fits with the Chicken Soup for the Soul brand,” said William J Rouhana Jr, chairman and CEO of CSSE.

“The acquisition of Pivotshare secures CSS Entertainment’s operations in the subscription VoD space earlier than projected and allows us to deploy our already owned content libraries as subscription VoD services quickly and at little to no cost.”

CSSE curates and distributes longform and shortform programming and is aiming to produce 60 half-hours of TV in 2018. It recently announced a series with Two and a Half Men star Ashton Kutcher.