MACRO, the entertainment company from Charles D. King, has acquired the Black-centric streamer, Allblk, from AMC Global Media.
As the company notes, this is MACRO’s first “entry into direct-to-consumer streaming,” with the company already specializing in “television film/television development, producing, financing, representation, branding and experiential services.” It will” invest in ALLBLK’s next phase of growth through new original programming, broader creative collaboration across its studios and network, and a strong focus on audience development and community engagement to deepen the platform’s relationship with its core viewers and strengthen its long-term value.”
In a statement, King, MACRO Founder and CEO, said, “At a time of significant disruption and consolidation across the media industry landscape, MACRO sees an opportunity to invest in a focused platform with a clear audience and strengthen it through greater resources, content and creative partnerships. From the beginning, our vision for MACRO has been to create a vertically integrated media company that can support storytellers and audiences across a variety of value chains. ALLBLK adds an additional piece to that vision with this opportunity to build upon what has made the platform successful. We’re proud of our longstanding partnership with AMC Global Media and excited to lead ALLBLK into its next chapter.”
“ALLBLK has had a fantastic year, establishing a strong foundation for continued growth under the stewardship of MACRO, a strategic partner in which we’ve been an investor for nearly a decade,” said Kristin Dolan, the CEO of AMC Global Media. “Charles and the entire team at MACRO bring the expertise to further ALLBLK’s strong trajectory. They have a great vision for ALLBLK and I’m particularly pleased that we will continue to be involved as investors and through a new content licensing agreement between our companies that will serve these passionate fans for years to come.”
Under MACRO, the platform will remain the same, as well as its content library, so subscribers will not be impacted in any way.
ALLBLK was initially founded as The Urban Movie Channel (UMC) in 2014 as a joint venture between BET founder Robert L. Johnson’s RLJ Entertainment and AMC Networks. AMC Networks itself acquired RLJ Entertainment in 2018 and rebranded as ALLBLK in 2021.
King, MACRO’s Executive Vice President of Strategy & Operations Bobby Singh and Chief Financial Officer Jaime Rigal led the acqusition effort, with Lazard and Lydian Strategy acting as financial advisors to MACRO. Paul Hastings LLP represented MACRO as legal counsel, with Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP representing AMC Global Media as legal counsel.
