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Cinedigm ramps up streaming ambitions with Digital Media Rights acquisition

LA-based distributor and digital channels operator Cinedigm is set to acquire streaming, advertising and distribution firm Digital Media Rights (DMR), which is the parent company to streaming channels such as AsianCrush and RetroCrush.

Chris McGurk

The acquisition of New York-headquartered DMR will bring 10 new channels and 7,500 titles under the Cinedigm umbrella. Financial terms have not been disclosed.

When the deal closes, Cinedigm said it will operate more than 30 streaming channels and have a content library spanning 46,000 hours of film and TV content. The company estimates that the addition of DMR will give it more than 40 million monthly viewers, 18.5 million social subscribers, and 13 billion minutes of content viewed each year.

In addition to AsianCrush, which features Asian film and TV series, and anime-focused RetroCrush, DMR is also the parent company of Midnight Pulp, Cinehouse, Cocoro and KMTV. It also operates four YouTube channels – C-Crush, Cinehouse Romance, K-Crush and QTTV – which have more than two million subscribers combined.

Cinedigm said the addition of DMR’s content portfolio will “fill the growing consumer demand for Asian-influenced media, such as Japanese anime and Korean dramas, across the entertainment landscape.”

Cinedigm’s existing SVoD, AVoD and FAST channel portfolio includes Fandor, Screambox, Bloody Disgusting, Dove Channel and The Bob Ross Channel.

The transaction also marks Cinedigm’s entry into the ad network business via DMR’s Ad Network & Marketplace, which Cinedigm said garners more than 100 million connected TV impressions a month.

“DMR’s top-notch management team, high-quality channels and film and TV library perfectly complement our own strengths and our mission of serving enthusiast audiences,” said Chris McGurk, chairman and CEO at Cinedigm.

“When you consider the other key additive components from this deal, including the global reach of DMR’s expansive social media efforts, we are well-positioned to not only reach a rapidly growing new audience in the short-term but also to expand the scale of a larger Cinedigm umbrella channel strategy in the long run. We expect this acquisition to be immediately accretive, and the leverage of Cinedigm’s technological efficiencies and expansive portfolio of assets will spur significant additional growth.”

Most recently Cinedigm inked an agreement with Shout! Factory under which the two companies have agreed to provide one another with films and TV series for their streaming services and channels.

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