Fullscreen Lets Creators Connect Directly To Fans With Acquisition Of StageBloc

With its latest acquisition, Fullscreen is giving its partners a new way to connect to their fans. The digital network has acquired audience engagement platform StageBloc, which it will rebrand as a service called Fullscreen Direct.

Fullscreen Direct will equip its users with a variety of tools they can use to track and engage with their respective fanbases. The service’s users will be able to examine statistics and demographic information about their audience, launch campaigns that target specific segments of that audience, aggregate content from multiple platforms in one convenient location, and interact directly with specific superfans.

“We’re putting creators in control of their own brands. With the StageBloc acquisition, we will be able to offer Fullscreen Direct to artists to centralize their content and products to engage their communities in one place,” said Beau Bryant, Fullscreen SVP of Talent and Programming, in a press release. “Today’s creators reach millions of fans across disparate platforms, and this direct-to-consumer approach is the future of the creator business.”

Fullscreen’s acquisition of StageBloc can be compared to YouTube’s February 2016 acquisition of Bandpage; in both deals, a major digital media company picked up a platform that consolidates interactions between creators and fans. That sort of streamlined approach is become increasingly popular in the digital media world, especially as creators become more platform-agnostic and reach more fans on mobile devices.

StageBloc, which was first incorporated in 2009, made its name by working with musicians. It’s most high-profile users include Metallica, Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban, and Eric Church; now, it will cater to Fullscreen’s network of more than 75,000 creators as well.

A press release from Fullscreen did not disclose the financial terms of the acquisition. StageBloc’s 18 employees will work out of Fullscreen’s Chicago office.