Anthem Sports & Entertainment purchases Hollywood Suite movie channels

A1 Digital India News: Leonard Asper's Anthem Sports & Entertainment has purchased Hollywood Suite, a Canadian indie broadcaster with four HD movie channels. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but, pending regulatory approval, Anthem will select a commercial-free movie channel featuring mostly Hollywood titles themed to the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s and distributed to 10 million homes across Canada.

Classic Hollywood films on the Hollywood Suite menu include Tom Cruise's Cocktail, The Abyss, Tom Hanks' comedy Turner & Hooch and Billy Wilder's The Seven Year Itch, starring Marilyn Monroe.

Anthem Sports & Entertainment, led by Asper, the longtime head of CanWest TV, is a holding company that owns Gravitas Ventures, AXS TV, HDNet Movies, Impact Wrestling, Fight Network, TNA Wrestling and GameTV, among other assets.

Asper aims to combine Gravitas Ventures, acquired by the indie distributor in 2021, and HDNet Movies, home of blockbuster epics and vintage films, with his Hollywood Suite as a pure-play movie service to promote the company's premium movie offering on both sides of the cultural border.

Before founding Anthem in 2010, Asper was CEO of CanWest Global Communications Corp., a position he held for nearly 10 years. "Anthem is focused on providing fresh and unique content to cater to its broad and diverse network of passionate fans and the acquisition of Hollywood Suite helps us continue that strategy," Asper said in a statement.

Adapt. Hollywood Suites chairman and co-founder David Kines will continue to run Hollywood Suites. Kines told The Hollywood Reporter that the transaction will give both companies more movie buying and marketing power as they transition from traditional TV platforms to fast-growing streaming and on-demand business models. "We will utilize our respective curation skills to develop and grow the best channel in North America," Kines said.