Blue Ant Studios
Blue Ant Media’s Mark Bishop, who serves as Co-President of the global media company’s Blue Ant Studios business, and Carlyn Staudt, EVP of Global Channels and Streaming, share how the organisation’s natural history offering has gone from strength to strength, and why a tentpole series like Love Nature’s original commission, Airborne, is worth the investment.
In the past few years, Blue Ant Studios’ distribution library of original 4K natural history content has grown to become the largest on the market. Mark Bishop, who co-leads all studio business across development, production and distribution, says that despite a disrupted market, it’s a good time to be in the natural history business and that the commitment to the genre across Blue Ant Studios and Blue Ant Channels + Streaming is lead with quality and longevity in mind.
“We offer premium content from world-class natural history producers from all over the world, like Passion Planet, Humble Bee Films, Beach House Pictures, Wild Pacific Media and Northern Pictures, just to name a few,” he says.
The catalogue includes 60+ original series that Blue Ant Media’s global wildlife and nature direct-to-consumer brand, Love Nature, has commissioned in the last five years alone. Carlyn Staudt says: “That’s quite a hefty volume and along with the great material that Mark is bringing into the catalogue from third-party producers, it really makes for a fulsome natural history offering for buyers.”
Staudt says the brand’s sustained growth has benefitted from the relationship between Blue Ant’s studios and channels teams. “We work closely to maximise the value of the Love Nature content. The sales team is very creative in monetising it and the content is windowed in a variety of ways. It could be that they find a first-window sale in a territory for one of our projects and then we cycle onto our branded platforms. That means we could show up in different territories in different ways. We’re platform-agnostic.”
At last count, Love Nature was available via 312 providers in 109 countries and 29 languages, reaching a total of over 400 million households. “The expansion of Love Nature in the past seven years has been explosive and we’re continuing to grow in partnership with our Studios business,” says Staudt.
Having a regional presence around the world is key too, says Bishop: “Our rights business is truly international with offices in the UK, the US, Canada, Singapore and Australia, led by senior sales executives armed with global market intelligence and connections that serve our teams developing, acquiring and co-commissioning content. That really informs everything we’re doing, and also benefits our third-party clients.”
Investment is also important and the best example of this is Love Nature’s new 4×60’ series Airborne from Humble Bee Films, produced with Sky Nature. The multi-million-dollar-per-episode show celebrates creatures of the sky and is scheduled for delivery in spring 2025.
Staudt says: “Airborne is a visual feast and to get that you need time in the field, you need to be able to access various locations around the world and you need to be using the highest-level tech possible. It’s a big labour of love and a huge investment.
“The show is a great example of some of the new tech we’re leaning into. We use high-speed cameras on cables to capture the slow motion of how the hummingbird hovers to feast on flowers and we have a segment on a goshawk darting through the forest where we’re using nimble POV drones so you feel like you’re riding on the back of its tail. It’s an incredibly intimate and immersive experience.
From start to finish, the show will be about three years in the making but having a series like this to sell is crucial, says Bishop: “We’re really excited to be heading to Mipcom with such a beautiful tentpole series that’s noisy and buzzy in the marketplace and so distinct. We’re already seeing from initial conversations that it’s cutting through and there are a lot of opportunities for buyers globally to come on board. And the beauty of how we’re working is that our studios and channels teams attend conferences like Mipcom together.”
Staudt adds: “Airborne will be airing on Sky in the UK, Italy and Germany; however, it is available for first window licensing to broadcast partners in all other territories. This is an example of partnering with Blue Ant Studios to see where we can connect this premium, blue-chip project to the widest audience possible.”
Other natural history shows that always get buyers’ attention are ones featuring lions or sharks, says Staudt: “Those are two of what I call the animal winners – buyers just love them.
“We’re really excited to launch Boss Shark, which digs into the social dynamics of the great white shark, and Pride Rules, which is a great blue-chip docusoap that follows a pride of lions. You get to know a lion named Einstein as he’s just born and watch as he grows up and tries to find his place in the world. You really see the pride dynamic through that.”
Eco-awareness is also high on the agenda, Bishop says: “In addition to Love Nature’s commissions, the distribution team is working with premium production partners to acquire content for the international marketplace that sparks a conversation. We’re launching Shared Planet from River Road Films that looks at how animals and humans can not only survive, but thrive while co-existing. It’s a beautiful, cinematic journey that offers hope for the future. Another show from Dorsey Pictures is Wings Over Water, narrated by Michael Keaton. It looks at three vital bird species and how their water paths and migration habits are changing over time, and how important their habitat is to their survival.”
Staudt’s editorial team is always looking to appeal to new audiences. “Animals have been around for millions and millions of years so our job as storytellers is to try to figure out a fresh and more modern way of entertaining audiences,” she says.
Shows that meet that brief include The Hungry Games: Alaska’s Big Bear Challenge, produced by Ample Entertainment and Love Nature for Peacock in the US, and narrated by Flight of the Conchords star, Rhys Darby. “It’s a fun take on the Alaskan salmon run, done in a reality style. That’s really putting entertainment first and trying to reach a younger audience,” says Staudt.
Another show aimed at younger audiences is Survival of the Beast, from Beach House Pictures, says Staudt. “In this series Max Djenohan, who was in Naked & Afraid, journeys to live with animals, learn from their skills and understand what it means to survive in the wild.”
“Those shows, together with Pride Rules, are three ways that we are concentrating on reaching that very engaged, interested, climate-first audience: we try to entertain them, give them information in a fun way and tug at the heart strings to make them care about these animals, because that’s how we’re going to really make a difference in eco-awareness.”
Bishop adds: “There is something about the hope and optimism that comes from a lot of natural history content that I think the world needs and will continue to need. Yes, there are dark days in the world, but to have hope for the future and the idea that we can be changemakers is a really positive message that we have an opportunity to bring and share.”
Staudt agrees: “I feel privileged to work in this genre, because it stands the test of time and certainly now more than ever when times are tough, it’s really a genre that lifts people’s spirits and moods.”
Blue Ant certainly isn’t naive about challenges facing the industry, but Bishop sees this as an exciting time for the company: “We’re coming at this from a place of building and growth. As we look forward and through our partnerships with companies around the world, we are looking for opportunities to keep investing in this space and we’re very open.”
Staudt agrees: “It’s a crazy, disrupted time right now and with that comes great opportunity. Blue Ant is right-sized to be nimble and creative in its dealmaking and in the way that we work with all of our partners.”
