Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment—parent company of Crackle Plus—is eying entry into the India streaming market through its acquisition of Locomotive Global.
Locomotive Global is a production company based in India and is led by Scott Anderson, former programming and acquisition strategy head for the Hallmark Channel who also worked at Starz/Encore and Liberty Media, and Sunder Aaron, co-founder of QYOU Media India and former executive vice president for Sony Pictures Television Networks India. The company is currently producing and developing original content for Amazon Prime Video and Indian local language remakes of series including “Ray Donovan” for Netflix in India.
“Expanding into India has been a top priority for us in our international expansion strategy and we are excited to be entering the market with an ambitious company like Locomotive Global,” said William J. Rouhana Jr., chairman and CEO for Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, in a statement. “This acquisition allows us to utilize Locomotive’s revenue, cash flow and presence in India as a base for further expansion in the region. We look forward to backing Locomotive’s expansion plans as we continue the rollout of our international strategy.”
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“There continues to be a major opportunity to produce high-quality content for platforms and services in India such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hotstar-Disney+ and others as they now compete for original movies and series so that they can better serve a rapidly growing OTT user base. Production costs are lower in India than in most Western markets, and we can use our development and production capabilities here to meet this growing demand for quality content. We also aim to provide high-quality productions for Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment’s AVOD networks at lower costs. The AVOD business is primed for growth in India as broadband connectivity, FAST channels and usage of connected televisions are expanding rapidly. Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment is the perfect company to partner with so that we can seize hold of these burgeoning opportunities together,” said Aaron in a statement.
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment owns Crackle Plus, which owns and operates ad-supported and subscription-based VOD networks including Crackle, Popcornflix, Popcornflix Kids, Truli, Pivotshare, Españolflix and FrightPix. The company also acquires and distributes video content through its Screen Media subsidiary and produces original long and short-form content through Landmark Studio Group, Chicken Soup for the Soul Unscripted, APlus.com and Halcyon Television.