HLN is trying to change its image, and it’s getting some help from a pair of crafty online video execs. The cable channel formerly known as Headline News has unveiled its upcoming slate, and it includes a series from My Damn Channel as well as another from Frederator Studios‘ Fred Seibert.
My Damn Channel execs Rob Barnett, Warren Chao, and Charlie Singer will produce Videocracy, in which a host and a panel will discuss the most exciting social media stories of the day. From that blurb, it sounds just like @midnight, the Comedy Central program in which host Chris Hardwick and a panel of comedians riff on social media.
Seibert’s contribution will take the form of I Can Haz NewsToons, which will feature an assortment of socially relevant animated shorts. Some of these shorts will come from web cartoonists, while others will come from print satirists.
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According to The Hollywood Reporter, the eclectic slate is part of new CEO Albie Hecht‘s plan to find “white spaces,” just as he did as part of the team that founded MTV. Both Seibert and Barnett can connect with that idea; they both worked for MTV in the first ten years of its existence.
Clearly, web video is one of the white spaces Hecht is trying to fill. TV and online video are very distinct spheres, but the recent success of shows like @midnight has proved that TV content heavily reliant on web content and talent can work. My Damn Channel and Frederator both live in between TV and online video, so they are both good choices to help bridge the gap.
