Christian entertainment company Pure Flix and Great American Media have announced plans to merge, creating a strong, united faith and family entertainment company. Pure Flix will become part of the merged company, with Great American Media contributing two cable networks (Great American Family and Great American Living) and a FAST channel (Great American Adventures). Great American Media will retain a majority interest in the merged company and will oversee day-to-day management of the independent organization.
For faith and family audiences, this is a big win. Great American Media has grown very quickly recently, thanks to high-profile projects featuring new faces Candace Cameron Buré and Danica McKellar (read my recent “Charisma” article here), and Pure Flix has been adding engaging original content, such as the recent “Sun Moon” and “Legacy Peak.” I can’t imagine this being anything other than a huge win for faith-based audiences and Christian entertainment in general, bringing more resources and viewers together.
Great American Media President and CEO, Bill Abbott, will serve as CEO of the merged entity, reporting to the company’s board of directors. The new company will build on the multi-faceted, multi-channel family and faith media brands in the portfolio. Closing of the deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
Pure Flix and Great American Media share the same mission to serve and delight consumers in the family and faith categories. Combining the power of Great American Media’s linear networks and FAST channel with Pure Flix’s SVOD service and vast content library will provide an opportunity for each platform to reach a larger and broader audience. Bringing the brands together into one entity will immediately establish the company as a leader in the genres.
“In a media environment where programming and distribution business models are in a constant state of flux, this agreement provides a rare opportunity to maximize our potential with the expertise, market knowledge and content creation capabilities of a world class partner like Sony Pictures,” said Abbott. “This merger will allow us to further our commitment to original, quality content and makes Great American Media and Pure Flix leaders in a large and under-served market.”
“Family-friendly entertainment remains an important segment of the industry, and merging these two entities will create the greatest opportunity to achieve more scale for Pure Flix as it continues to build its subscriber base,” said Ravi Ahuja, Chairman of Global Television Studios and Corporate Development for Sony Pictures. “Bill and the Great American Media team have been successfully leading the Great American Family and Great American Living brands, and we believe they have a winning plan to take Pure Flix to even greater heights.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
SPT acquired Pure Flix in December 2020. The service provides faith and family-friendly movies and TV series to its ~1M subscribers in the U.S. and Canada.
Featuring original Christmas movies, rom-coms and classic series that celebrate faith, family and country, Great American Family is currently in ~50M homes and is carried by all major cable providers. Great American Family recently closed out First Quarter 2023 as the fastest-growing network on TV for the second consecutive quarter.
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