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Crackle sells at Chicken Soup for the Soul. It's not a joke from the beginning of April, but rather the fact that Sony's aging streaming service, Crackle, has now found a new home with Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, or CSS Entertainment – the same company that Today manages the Popcornflix streaming service and other streaming channels. . (And yes, is also behind the well-known book series.)
The news was first reported by Variety and then detailed in a press release issued this morning.
CSS Entertainment will now be the majority shareholder of the new joint venture, renamed "Crackle Plus". Sony will receive 4 million five-year warrants for the purchase of Clbad A common shares of CSS Entertainment, reports the Variety report.
Sony acquired Crackle for the first time in 2006, making it one of the oldest free streaming and advertising-funded services on the market. However, it has struggled to compete against sites such as Netflix and billions of them, like Hulu, Amazon and now Apple, are investing in original content. This prompted Sony to announce last year that it would look for new strategic partners to help manage Crackle.
Crackle's ownership transfer comes at a time when commercial-free streaming services like this are attracting new interest, with Amazon's launch of FreeDive's IMDb, Roku's The Roku Channel, Vudu of Walmart, Pluto, the new addition of Viacom, etc. now makes gains.
As part of this deal, Sony will bring its badets to the United States, including the Crackle brand, the user base and the advertising representative activities, to the new project, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He will also license film and TV shows from Sony Pictures Entertainment Library to Crackle Plus, as well as Crackle's original programming, such as his shows "Start Up" and "The Oath", for example.
CSS Entertainment will present Crackle Plus with six of its ad-supported networks, including Popcornflix, Popcornflix Kids, Popcornflix Comedy, Frightpix, Espanolflix and Truli, as well as its Pivotshare subscription service.
The combination will enable Crackle Plus to become one of the largest advertising video-on-demand platforms in the United States, with nearly 10 million active monthly users and 26 million registered users. The new service will also have access to more than 38,000 hours of combined programming, more than 90 content partnerships and more than 100 networks.
"Our joint venture will position Crackle Plus as the leading AVOD streaming platform with nearly 10 million active users on our owned and operated networks. Our recurring revenues generated by online networks will be multiplied by many, "said William J. Rouhana, Jr., President and CEO of CSS Entertainment, in a statement. "We plan to build Crackle Plus aggressively and profitably through organic growth and acquisitions."
Eric Berger, current CEO of Crackle, will leave Crackle when the deal is finalized.
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