Cinedigm to Acquire Film Detective

Cinedigm Corp. has agreed to acquire Film Detective, a competing content distributor and streaming channel company.Financial terms of the deal between the Sherman Oaks content distributor and Film Detective in Rockport, Mass. were not disclosed.The deal adds to Cinedigm’s portfolio the Film Detective library of 3,000 titles, an estimated 10,000 individual films and television episodes and two free ad-supported networks.Film Detective will continue to operate independently under Philip Hopkins, its founder and chief executive. He will assume the new title of president of the division.Cinedigm Chief Executive Chris McGurk called Hopkins an entertainment industry champion for independent film and TV content who has proved an aggressive innovator in the growing streaming business.“Film Detective’s library is currently profitable, and with synergies and expanded distribution we believe we can quickly and significantly increase both revenues and profits from both the library and The Film Detective’s two streaming channels,” McGurk said in a statement.The new acquisition’s library included films from the silent era into the 1970s, with a heavy focus on films from the 1930s to 1950s. The television content includes such shows as “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “You Bet Your Life,” “Dragnet” and “The Lucy Show.”Hopkins has distributed and licensed his company’s film library assets though leading media companies, including Turner Classics Movies, American Movie Classics, Amazon, MeTV and public broadcasting stations.Shares of Cinedigm (CIDM) closed down nearly 2 cents, or 3.1 percent, to 58 cents on the Nasdaq, on a day when that market closed down at less than 2 percent.