Wow Unlimited Media (stylized as WOW! Unlimited Media) is a Canadian animation and media holding company. It was formed as a result of a merger between

Rainmaker Entertainment Mainframe Studios is a Canadian computer animation company owned by Wow Unlimited Media and based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 1993 as Mainframe Entertainment Inc. by Christopher Brough, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell, Gavin Blair and ...

Frederator Networks Frederator Networks, Inc. is a media company founded by Fred Seibert. It makes and distributes cartoons, often on Channel Frederator, and through its in-house animation studio Frederator Studios. It is the largest distributor of independent anima ...

and Ezrin Hirsh Entertainment (EHE).

History

On October 26, 2016, a three-way merger was announced between Rainmaker and Frederator, with the addition of EHE. On December 16 of that year, the merger was completed. On June 7, 2017, the company announced its intent to acquire an unspecified category B specialty television service from

Bell Media Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies. Establishment (2011–13) On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...

, later revealed by company president Randy Lennox to be

Comedy Gold Comedy Gold may refer to: * ''Comedy Gold'' (TV series), a 2008 Australian television series *Comedy Gold (TV channel) Comedy Gold, formerly known as TV Land Canada was a Canadian English language specialty channel that was owned by Bell Media f ...

, to form a television channel that will carry programs targeting children and young adults. The company also entered into agreements to provide content for Bell Media's

over-the-top content An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributor ...

services (including

CraveTV Crave (initially named CraveTV) is a Canadian subscription video on demand service owned by Bell Media. The service competes directly with other subscription-based over-the-top streaming services operating in Canada, primarily American-based se ...

). In exchange for the channel,

Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in ...

will acquire 3.4 million common voting shares in the company. Bell confirmed the deal in September 2017, further stating that it had agreed to provide operational services for the channel, and co-develop content. The sale of Comedy Gold to Wow Unlimited Media was approved on July 9, 2018, and CraveTV launched "Wow! Preschool Playdate" and "Wow! World Kids" collections in September. However, on March 12, 2019, Wow issued a press release announcing an extension to the transfer of the channel's license "to pursue sponsorships and partnerships". On July 24, 2019, a representative of Bell Support revealed that Comedy Gold would be shutting down anywhere between August 30 and September 1; Comedy Gold was ultimately shuttered on September 1, 2019. Wow would reveal in their Q2 financial report that they would have completed their acquisition of Comedy Gold's broadcast license on August 30, 2019. However, the license was revoked on February 5, 2021 before it could ever be launched. On October 27, 2021,

Genius Brands Genius Brands International (GBI) is an entertainment company headed by Andy Heyward. The company was formed from the merger of Genius Brands International and A Squared Entertainment. History 2014–2015 Genius Brands International (GBI) was f ...

announced that it had agreed to acquire Wow Unlimited Media for C$66 million (US$53 million), with the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022. The acquisition was completed on April 7, 2022.

Assets

* Mainframe Studios * Frederator Networks, Inc. **

Frederator Studios Frederator Studios is an American animation television production studio which is a division of Frederator Networks, Inc. It was founded by Fred Seibert in 1997 with its first series launching in 1998. (Seibert resigned from Frederator in Augu ...

***

Frederator Films Frederator Studios is an American animation television production studio which is a division of Frederator Networks, Inc. It was founded by Fred Seibert in 1997 with its first series launching in 1998. (Seibert resigned from Frederator in Augus ...

** Channel Frederator Network ***StashRiot ***

Cartoon Hangover Cartoon Hangover is a Frederator internet television channel and adult animation division, part of the YouTube Original Channel Initiative, launched in February 2012. Frederator produced two animated series exclusively for the Internet: '' Brave ...

***Frederator Flux ****The Leaderboard Network ****Cinematica ****MicDrop ****Átomo Network (Spanish-language

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel joint venture with Ánima Estudios) **Frederator Books **Thirty Labs *Ezrin Hirsh Entertainment (EHE)

References

External links

Official website
{{Animation industry in Canada 2016 establishments in Ontario 2022 mergers and acquisitions Canadian animation studios Companies based in Toronto Companies formerly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Canadian companies established in 2016 Mass media companies established in 2016 Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies