For an investment firm with only 14 employees and a name that intentionally flys under-the-radar, Content Partners has an outsized impact as a blue chip Hollywood rightsholder.
The Mid-Wilshire-based L.A. company, founded by ex-Brillstein exec Steven Blume and former William Morris Agency COO Steven Kram, owns half of the entire C.S.I. procedural franchise (800-plus episodes) as part of its 3,000 hours of TV and counts chunks of a studio film library that totals upwards of 800 movies, including the entire Revolution Studios catalog (military actioner Black Hawk Down,Martin Scorsese feature Hugo,Natalie Portman drama Black Swanand Vin Diesel’sxXxaction series among them).
Since 2006, the firm has quietly worked with all the major studios and many of the power players in town to buy out backend profit participation from talent and production companies after projects have completed their initial run, amassing a large holding of titles in the process. Taking a stake in what it sees premium film, TV or music IP to monetize in the long tail is its stock-in-trade. And its partial or outright holdings have grown by more than 300 film titles over the past several years.
Now it’s getting a notable expansion in capital available to its firm for future acquisitions. On Tuesday, the Global Credit platform of investment giant Carlyle said that it provided a new single-asset continuation vehicle giving Content Partners access to funding for growth while allowing existing investors the option to cash out or participate in further ventures with the firm.
“We are pleased to have supported Content Partners’ success and look forward to continuing our partnership as the Company enters its next phase of growth with this new capital,” stated the aptly named Benjamin Fund, a partner at Carlyle. “Content Partners has built a differentiated platform focused on high-quality film and television assets. The portfolio is characterized by what we believe are long-duration, largely uncorrelated cash flows that we think are well positioned to continue benefiting from sustained demand for premium library content. We look forward to partnering with the team to build on this success in the years to come.”
“Content Partners is excited about the successful closing of this continuation vehicle, which delivers meaningful new capital to fuel our ongoing acquisition momentum while providing existing investors with attractive liquidity options,” read a joint statement from Content Partners CEO Steven Kram, CFO Steven Blume and president John Mass.
The trio of execs added, “We appreciate the strong ongoing support from Carlyle and are confident this transaction will help us further strengthen our position as the leading independent owner of premium studio film and television assets. We’re eager to build on this momentum by continuing to pursue compelling film and television opportunities that will expand our market-leading library and deliver outstanding long-term value.”
The Carlyle deal marks the latest move for a firm that, in 2024, launched a credit investing division titled Content Partners Capital led by film finance veteran Alphonse Lordo.That unit has done deals with the since-revived Relativity Media as well as indie film and TV studio ElectricEntertainment and financing company Media Capital Technologies.
Content Partners is also dipping its toe into the microdrama space, inking a licensing deal with upstart firm GammaTime, run by ex-Miramax CEO Bill Block, to adapt select episodes of the longrunning true crime docuseries Forensic Files (which it owns the rights to) as vertical video content for the app.
The company’s latest addition to its exec ranks this year is former WME business affairs exec Ben Kram, the son of the firm’s co-founder, who joined as vice president.