Cinedigm, which has been steadily increasing its streaming portfolio over the past years, now has 10 new channels and 7,500 titles. It also enters the ad network market by acquiring Digital Media Rights.
DMR was founded by Michael Hong, David Chu and is a social video curator, channel and ad network operator, and distributor. According to someone familiar with the company’s books, DMR is a privately owned company that generates more than $10,000,000 annually in revenue.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources estimated that it would be between $20 million and $25 million.
Cinedigm will be able to control more than 30 streaming platforms after the transaction. Cinedigm owns 15 of them. The 46,000 hours of programming attract 40 million viewers per month. The deal will also position Cinedigm in the ad network business for the first time, with DMR’s network recording more than 100 million impressions a month from connected TVs.
DMR’s roster of 10 streaming outlets — seven of which are free and ad-supported — includes AsianCrush, a specialist in Asian entertainment, including premium movies. Other streaming outlets include RetroCrush and Cocoro, Midnight Pulp, RetroCrush and Cinehouse.
C-Crush is a social video channel that focuses on Chinese movies and TV; Cinehouse Romance, a community about Korean films and pop culture; K-Crush is a community for Korean film fans; and QTTV caters to queer cinema fans.
The social expertise of DMR will be leveraged across Cinedigm’s businesses, the company said. DMR Social has more than 17,000,000 subscribers and fans on YouTube and Facebook. The eight brands it owns have an average of 284 million videos a month and more that 8 million hours each. The plan is to apply DMR’s strengths to Cinedigm properties like Fandor, CONtv and Screambox.
“DMR’s top-notch management team, high-quality channels and film & TV library perfectly complement our own strengths and our mission of serving enthusiast audiences,”Chris McGurk, Cinedigm CEO, said. “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.”
Chu, DMR’s co-founder and CEO, said that by working together, the companies can “meet the rising demands of audiences around the world, including fans of incredibly popular Korean dramas, Japanese anime, and Chinese TV, as well as arthouse, romance and horror movies.”