Blue Ant continued to feed its appetite for new content channels on Wednesday, with the announcement it has acquired Canadian lifestyle company Cottage Life Media.

The acquisition includes the purchase of the company’s four consumer magazines Cottage Life, Cottage, Outdoor Canada and Canadian Home Workshop, and their associated websites, as well as its custom magazines, books, social media apps and the bi-annual Cottage Life consumer shows.

Michael MacMillan, CEO, Blue Ant Media, tells MiC that the deal has been in the works since the media co bought a 15% stake in Cottage Life Media a year and a half ago.

“[Cottage Life Media] fits very nicely in one of our core strategies, which is to focus on the non-fiction, lifestyle area of content creation and programming, and delivering that programming,” he says.

Cottage Life Media’s assets will remain intact, and Al Zikovitz, CEO and president, Cottage Life Media, will continue to lead the business operations of the company.

MacMillan says that the acquisition makes Blue Ant an authoritative voice on cottage lifestyle, and will help it reach the cottager demographic of higher income men and women aged 25 to 54.

Blue Ant has had a busy year buying up multi-platform assets.

November saw the media co complete its $10 million acquisition of the digital specialty channel Bold, which included a $1 million tangible benefits package to be spread over seven years.

The package included a $950,000 investment to create the Blue Ant Multiscreen Fund, which will focus on in-house original content, as well as independent production. The remaining $50,000 will go towards Winnipeg’s National Screen Institute to support the creation of training or mentorship programs related to transmedia content creation.

In August, Blue Ant also acquired Canadian broadcaster High Fidelity HDTV and its four HD channels, Oasis HD, eqhd, radX and HIFI HD for $85 million.

Cottage Life Media joins Blue Ant’s growing stable, which also includes Glassbox Television, Bite, AUX and Travel+Escape.