Wildlife Specialist Love Nature Marks 10 Years With Global Expansion, Leadership Promotion (EXCLUSIVE)

Wildlife and nature channel Love Nature is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a promotion at the top and ambitious plans for continued global growth.

The Blue Ant Media company has elevated senior VP, production and development Alison Barrat to senior VP, head of content as it reaches new milestones in international distribution and content partnerships. In her expanded role, Barrat will lead Love Nature’s global content strategy across original commissioning, acquisitions, programming and marketing.

Barrat will continue reporting into Carlyn Staudt, who was recently promoted into the newly created role of executive VP of global channels and streaming at Blue Ant Media and now leads the growth of the company’s portfolio of international channels. James Manfull, commissioning editor and Katie Murdock, executive producer, will continue to report to Barrat.

“Alison has excelled at elevating the quality, breadth and contemporary appeal of Love Nature’s original programming,” says Staudt. “Her new role as head of content is a natural progression of the incredible results she’s achieved.”

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The promotion comes as Love Nature marks a decade of evolution from its origins as a Canadian specialty pay TV channel. The brand is now available in 110 countries, 29 languages, and across both pay TV and streaming platforms in 4K. It reaches approximately 400 million households worldwide through branded linear and online platforms as well as content partnerships.

“The highlight has actually been the journey,” reflects Barrat on the 10-year milestone. “Every time we did something, it was a new thing. And so there was that kind of sense of like, alright, let’s figure this out.”

Staudt, who joined in 2017, after two decades at National Geographic, to reinvent the channel’s content strategy, recalls the early days of building out the U.S. team. “Alison was my employee number three,” she says. “I was looking for someone to do this with, a partner, and Alison stepped up and started this journey with me at a content level.”

A key inflection point came in 2020, when Love Nature capitalized on the emerging FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) landscape in the U.S. “We really pushed forward into that,” says Staudt. “We went FAST first in the States and leaped right over pay TV.”

The move paid off, with Love Nature finding success on FAST despite skepticism about 24/7 wildlife programming’s viability in the U.S. market. “Audiences came to our FAST channels like you wouldn’t believe, and we really, really grew that audience quite quickly,” Staudt notes.

On the content front, Love Nature has focused on innovative approaches to natural history programming. Recent examples include “Survival of the Beast,” featuring survivalist Max Djenohan learning from animal behaviors, and “The Hungry Games: Alaska’s Big Bear Challenge,” a competition-style series about bears bulking up for hibernation.

“Finding new ways of telling stories, expanding the genre by working with different partners and even different production companies to keep the genre fresh, has been a challenge, and one that I personally have relished,” says Barrat.

The company has also expanded its roster of on-screen talent, working with hosts like Lizzie Daly, Dan O’Neill and Djenohan to bring fresh perspectives to natural history content. “One of the things that we do very well is just have a big diversity of fresh faces on the channel which represents the entire globe – it’s a global channel, so we’re looking for global faces on it that represent our audience,” Barrat says.

Looking ahead, Love Nature is eyeing further international growth, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. The company established an APAC business last year with offices in Sydney and Singapore. “Asia is a really exciting time and a really exciting player in ways that they’re innovating how they deliver content, and we want to be there in a more meaningful way,” says Staudt.

“It’s not only about expanding off of our flagship love nature channel, but also we intend to replicate Love Nature into other genres and developing other content brands that we can monetize in various different ways,” Staudt added.

On the technology front, Love Nature is preparing for the potential shift to 8K production and distribution, while acknowledging the challenges in workflow and consumer adoption. “We shoot right now a lot in 8K,” Staudt says. “There’s some technology advancement and also industry-wide adoption that needs to happen. But rest assured, in this genre, we will be there when that happens and ready to go.”

The company is also exploring opportunities in emerging platforms like virtual reality headsets. “We’re trying to meet viewers where they are, and that’s a whole new, exciting area,” notes Staudt.

As Love Nature enters its second decade, Barrat and Staudt are bullish about the brand’s growth and future. “I really feel like this is a good news story. I feel very optimistic about the future of the genre. I know that the audience is out there,” says Barrat. “I know that we’re continuing to make high quality, beautiful, relevant content, and I am looking forward to whatever we do next and wherever the media world pulls us. I’m confident that we’re going to be there and it’s going to be fun.”