Lighthearted Entertainment, led by Rob LaPlante and Jeff Spangler and behind such shows as Ready to Love, Are You The One?, and Queen’s Court, has been acquired by Blink49 Studios.
The deal encompasses Lighthearted’s active productions, content library, and projects currently in development, and will see LaPlante and Spangler join Blink49 in the newly created post of co-presidents, formats. They will report to Tara Long, global president of unscripted television at Blink49 and are tasked with boosting the company’s formats strategy.
“Lighthearted Entertainment has built a remarkable legacy in the unscripted space, and we’re excited to welcome them into the Blink49 family,” said John Morayniss, CEO of Blink49 Studios. “This acquisition marks an important step in expanding our formats business and broadening the scope of what we can deliver to buyers worldwide. With Lighthearted’s creative leadership and approach to building scalable unscripted IP, Blink49 is well-positioned to accelerate growth across high-demand genres.”
“With their proven track record of creating hit unscripted formats and long-running series, Lighthearted is a key addition to our unscripted group,” Long added. “Rob and Jeff’s creative vision and leadership will strengthen our development pipeline and unlock new opportunities across Canada and the international marketplace.”
“Joining forces with Blink49 is an exciting new chapter as we unite two strong creative engines. By combining our development, production, and distribution strengths, we’re positioned to expand our slate, grow our partnerships, and deliver high-impact unscripted formats around the world,” LaPlante and Spangler added. “We couldn’t be more excited to help lead Blink49 global formats into the future of unscripted.”
The venture was founded in 1992 by the late Howard Schultz and has produced content for the likes of Netflix, Peacock, Fox, ABC, OWN, MTV, and VH1.
