Sony’s religion-based mostly streaming service merges with Hallmark rival Great American Media

Sony’s religion-based mostly streaming service merges with Hallmark rival Great American Media


Actress Maria Conchita Alonso attends the Los Angeles premiere of “God’s Not Lifeless: We The People” at Hilton Los Angeles/Universal Metropolis on September 21, 2021 in Common Town, California.

Paul Archuleta | Getty Pictures

Sony Pics Entertainment and its streaming support Pure Flix are producing place on the cable Tv dial. 

The company’s streaming provider, acknowledged for faith-based mostly content material, is merging with Excellent American Media, a latest upstart cable rival to the Hallmark Channel. 

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The mix will give Pure Flix’s written content a location in front of conventional Tv set viewers. It will also beef up the slate for Terrific American’s Tv set networks Wonderful American Spouse and children and Terrific American Residing. 

As component of the offer, which has nevertheless to near, articles from both equally Pure Flix and Good American Media will cross each other’s platforms. 

Sony acquired Pure Flix in December 2020 for an undisclosed sum. The service, which features content material these kinds of as the “God’s Not Useless” movie franchise and “The Preferred” sequence, expenses $7.99 a thirty day period and has around 1 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. 

The deal will also give Wonderful American’s fledgling Tv networks a streaming household. 

Terrific American Media and its two cable Tv set networks have been introduced in 2021 by Invoice Abbott, former CEO of Crown Media, the dad or mum of the Hallmark Channel. Through his tenure at Hallmark, he served flip the network into a Xmas movie behemoth, which carries on to beckon some of the highest cable Television set ratings during the holiday break time. 

Lori Loughlin is seen on December 31, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.

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Abbott left Hallmark in 2020 immediately after backlash involving commercials showcasing a exact same-intercourse marriage ceremony ceremony. The network pulled the advertisements soon after experiencing pressure from a conservative team, then reversed its training course shortly immediately after a homosexual rights advocacy group attempted to start an promoting boycott. 

Shortly just after, Abbott released Excellent American Media and signed discounts with some of the prime stars identified for their Hallmark Channel motion pictures and sequence.

Acquainted faces at Fantastic American Media

  • Danica McKellar, who starred as Winnie Cooper in the first “Ponder Several years”
  • Candace Cameron Bure, the longtime queen of Hallmark holiday break films who recently found herself mired in controversy above opinions concerning identical-sex couples
  • Lori Loughlin, the former “Full Home” cast member, who experienced been fired from Hallmark for her role in the 2019 college admissions scandal

Abbott will stay as CEO of the merged companies, and report to the board of directors. Terms of the offer weren’t disclosed, but Good American Media will hold the the vast majority desire in the merged enterprise. 

Great American Media took the step of launching its written content on classic cable networks fairly than a streaming service through a time when far more and more buyers are fleeing cable bundles in favor of streaming. Cable subscriber losses continued to speed up in the most new quarter. 

Although the firm’s networks are offered in 50 million shell out Television residences, and touts that it is the quickest-developing Television set community based mostly on Nielsen scores, it has however to commence its individual streaming company. 

As an alternative, the networks have been featured in web Tv set bundles, these types of as Frndly Tv set and Fubo. Good American Media also has a cost-free, advert-supported channel for its written content. 



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