Fandango, owned by Comcast’s NBCUniversal, said Wednesday it has agreed to acquire Rotten Tomatoes and Flixster from Warner Bros. Entertainment, part of the online ticketer’s strategy to delve further into video on demand.
While financial details weren’t revealed, the deal has Warner Bros. taking a minority stake in Fandango.
Fandango has been on a buying spree of late, as the acquisition comes one month after Fandango acquired M-GO, a provider of movies and TV shows for streaming that was founded as a joint venture between DreamWorks Animation and Technicolor.
Like M-GO, Flixster also sells and rents movies, but Flixster Video, described as a digital video redemption service, is not included in the acquisition. Instead, that service will eventually transition its users to Fandango’s new VOD service later this year.
But Flixster is perhaps best known as the parent of Rotten Tomatoes, the popular film review site.
Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes together reach 20 million unique visitors per month, which is less than what Warner Bros. boasted of when it bought them five years ago for up to $90 million.
Fandango said that because of the acquisition its combined audience reach will exceed 63 million.
“Bringing these properties together into a single, integrated portfolio creates an opportunity to truly accelerate innovation in movie discovery and ticketing, making moviegoing an even more compelling experience,” said Warner Bros. chief digital officer Thomas Gewecke.
Email: Paul.Bond@THR.com
