AOL Doubles Down On Live By Announcing A New ‘Build’ Space, A Kind Of ‘TRL’ For The Internet Generation

Over the past year, AOL’s video programming priorities have shifted to include a greater focus on live entertainment. At its NewFronts event, the digital media company announced its plan to further its live streaming efforts with a new studio for its interview series, AOL BUILD.

AOL has been hosting BUILD installment at its New York City headquarters for several more than 800 episodes, but the show’s new space, which will encompass 13,412 square feet, will bring in members of the general public to serve as its audience a la’s MTV’s iconic pop culture show Total Request Live. While there, attendees will be able to interact with AOL’s guests, who will be big names in pop culture and entertainment. Suzanne Lindbergh, the SVP and GM of BUILD, told Tubefilter she sees the show as a convenient-yet-unique part of the promotional circuit. “They go to The Today Show in the morning, they come here after that, and then they go to Fallon or Colbert in the afternoon,” she said of BUILD’s guests.

Lindbergh also noted that AOL is taking steps to ensure BUILD episodes receive as big a viewing audience as possible. While episodes are live, they are featured on the AOL homepage, before a “quick turnaround” to VOD availability on the series’ main hub. With that level of promotion, BUILD can avoid the discoverability problems that have plagued some of AOL’s other original programs.

“AOL BUILD has been able to create incredible moments by creating unique content that lives at the intersection of social and live,” Lindbergh added in a press release. “With a series, like BUILD, we are excited to continue to innovate live programming with the digital and mobile world that we live in and let our audience be immersed in the moment, live and unedited”.

The new BUILD space is expected to open in the fall. It will be located at 692 Broadway, just a few blocks from AOL’s headquarters.