Major Merger in the Indie Space Unites Two Fantastic Film Libraries

 

 

While we’ve seen plenty of consolidatory action from larger studios in the post-pandemic period, we’ve seen considerably less movement on the indie front. However, with Shout! acquiring fellow indie distributor, Gravitas Ventures, there’s now an incredibly impressive indie film library for them to draw on. To tell us more, we have Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer at Blake & Wang P.A.

 


                                                                        Brandon Blake

Continuing as Independent Brands

Despite the consolidation, however, both Gravitas Ventures and Shout! will be continuing to acquire content separately. However, the increase in scale will no doubt bring to life better monetization opportunities for their content across both streaming and linear. Gravitas Ventures alone offers 3,300 properties across both scripted and non-scripted content as well as sports-related titles.

 

Shout! was quite open about this compelling library and its distribution potential being a key reason for their interest in Gravitas Ventures. Salem Partners and Sheppard Mullin acted as advisors for the deal, with legal input from Greenberg Traurig.

A Long History

Gravitas was founded almost two decades ago. It was later acquired by Anthem Sports and Entertainment in 2021. This explains why a significant portion of their library focuses on sports documentaries and other related niches. This specialty, in a climate where live sports streaming is becoming an increasingly important component of general entertainment streaming, could give it some significant leverage going ahead.

Shout!, conversely, is backed by Oaktree Capital Management, an asset management firm. To date, their focus has been on cult classics and nostalgic content, including classic TV programs and animation, with most of their library focusing on comedy, sci-fi, horror, and family fare.

 

Offering complementary strengths and a vast library to tempt distribution partners, this could be quite a significant development for the indie film landscape. It will be interesting to see what comes from the merger as it matures.

 

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