Wow Unlimited Media Inc. (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 animation studio 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 John Gra ...

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). The company is currently a subsidiary of American-based

Kartoon Studios Kartoon Studios, Inc., formerly known as 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 Backgrou ...

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. (Canadian French, French: ) is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada). Its operations include nati ...

, later revealed by company president

Randy Lennox Randy Lennox is a Canadian music and media executive. He currently serves as the CEO of LOFT Entertainment. He previously served as president and CEO of Universal Music Canada and president of Bell Media. While Lennox was at Universal Music ...

to be Comedy Gold, 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 media service (also known as over-the-top television, or simply OTT) is a digital distribution service of video and audio delivered directly to viewers via the public Internet, rather than through an over-the-air, cable, satel ...

services (including

CraveTV Crave (originally 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 against American-bas ...

). 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, Quebec, in Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in the province ...

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 Kartoon Studios, Inc., formerly known as 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 Backgrou ...

(now Kartoon Studios) 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 Mainframe Studios is a Canadian animation studio 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 John Gr ...

* Frederator Networks, Inc. **

Frederator Studios Frederator Studios is an American animation television production studio founded by Fred Seibert in January 1997. It is a division of Frederator Networks, Inc., itself a part of Kartoon Studios' Canadian holding company Wow Unlimited Media. T ...

***

Frederator Films Frederator Studios is an American animation television production studio founded by Fred Seibert in January 1997. It is a division of Frederator Networks, Inc., itself a part of Kartoon Studios' Canadian holding company Wow Unlimited Media. ...

Channel Frederator Network The Channel Frederator Network is an American animation, video game and pop culture multi-channel network founded by cartoon producer and serial media entrepreneur Fred Seibert and managed by Frederator Networks. After launching Frederator Stu ...

***StashRiot ***

Cartoon Hangover Cartoon Hangover is a Frederator-operated YouTube channel and adult animation brand that launched in February 2012 as part of the YouTube Original Channel Initiative. The channel (along with Cartoon Hangover 2, Cartoon Hangover FRA, Cartoon Ha ...

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

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

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 Television production companies of Canada