Digital media leader Vice and sports entertainment company ESPN have inked a production and distribution deal whereby Vice will create sports-centric content for ESPN’s television, digital, and mobile properties. At the same time, several episodes of ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary series — which highlights important people and events in sports history — will air on the recently launched Viceland television channel later this year.

The Walt Disney Company, which owns ESPN, doubled its stake in Vice last December to $400 million, claiming ownership of 10% of the media upstart.

The short-form content that Vice Sports (the company’s sports vertical) is currently developing for ESPN will look at dominant athletes around the world, and sports events that take place outside of the mainstream. The two companies are also developing a short-form animated series. Original episodes of Vice’s existing series The Clubhouse and cutdowns of its Vice World of Sports show will also run on various ESPN properties.

“The amount of manly tears shed over various 30 for 30’s throughout the years has been nothing short of embarrassing,” said Vice co-founder and CEO Shane Smith in a statement. “To be teaming up with ESPN, creating brand new sports shows for them, and then showing 30 for 30’s on Viceland is perhaps one of the favorite moments in my professional life. I can now die a happy man. No, wait, we have to take over the world first! Here it comes baby, VICE WORLD OF SPORTS!!”

Added ESPN president John Skipper: “Evoking manly tears from Shane Smith is no small task…And I applaud Shane for understanding that television is the smartest path to worldwide leadership.”

Filed under: Channels, ESPN, Industry, News, Viceland by Geoff Weiss
No Comments »

Maker Studios announced at its third annual NewFronts presentation this morning that it has greenlit four new series from its Spark program — an incubation initiative whereby Maker chooses projects both developed for and pitched by talent based on stats like engagement, viewership, watch time, retention, and more.

The four projects selected from the inaugural Spark class, first announced last February, include: Spin For Ink, in which contestants must endure extreme challenges in order be tattooed by celebrity artist Romeo Lacoste; Worthy, in which beauty guru Charisma Star will share inspirational stories submitted by her viewers; a dystopian puppet show by Chad Quandt called The Remember Hour; and Can I Crush it?, in which Kali Muscle will see which objects he can and cannot crush.

“Our creative process continues to evolve — utilizing Spark by Maker as a new blueprint for collaboration while retaining Maker Studios’ distinct brand voice,” said the company’s head of development and studios, Gabriel Lewis, in a statement. The first Spark class included 34 creators, and Maker says its second class will be announced later this year.

Creators in attendance at Maker’s NewFront event — which was an intimate breakfast this time around as opposed to the blockbuster presentations of years’ past — included hallmark star PewDiePie, Timothy DeLaGhetto, and Holderness Family parents Kim and Penn.

Other forthcoming Maker series include: Thai Machine, in which Timothy DeLaGhetto and Ricky Shucks travel through time in a food truck, and What Happened to the Babysitter, in which a four-year-old must use his superhuman skills to protect his babysitter.

Photo credit: Kathi Littwin for Maker Studios

Filed under: Industry, Maker Studios, NewFronts, News, YouTube by Geoff Weiss
No Comments »

Nine months after the conclusion of its fourth season, Epic Rap Battles of History is back. The popular web series has launched its fifth go-around with a showdown between fantasy authors past and present: In one corner, George R.R. Martin, author of Game of Thrones; in the other, J.R.R. Tolkien, the scribe behind Lord of the Rings.

The new episode is the latest example of Nice Peter and EpicLloyd’s winning formula. As in previous installments, the battle between Tolkien (played by Peter) and Martin (played by Lloyd) features savage disses, plentiful references to each author’s career, and, of course, elaborate costumes. A behind-the-scenes video shows that Lloyd’s GRRM costume took more than four hours to put on.

ERB’s long hiatus (minus a one-off bonus battle featuring Deadpool and Boba Fett) gave the show’s creators some time to head out on tour while also allowing them to preserve the novelty of their work. Even so, it’s good to have them back. Here’s hoping for a fun season five.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, Uncategorized, Web Series by Sam Gutelle
No Comments »

Following a high-octane performance by an all-female drum circle and hula hoop phenom Marawa Wamp, Refinery29 presented a slew of new projects at its NewFront presentation yesterday — the theme of which was all about women “claiming power.”

To this end, Refinery — which says it has a global audience of 175 million across all platforms, as well as 100 million monthly video views — announced two new YouTube channels arriving later this month: the sports-centric Brawlers in collaboration with Smart Water, and comedy channel Riot, which will launch with eight series and guest appearances from the likes of Lena Dunham.

In terms of scripted originals, Refinery has recruited a handful of high-profile partners to direct projects for its ShatterBox Anthology of 12 shorts, which aim to highlight female filmmakers. Kristen Stewart will make her directorial debut with Water, Gabourey Sidibe will helm A Tale Of Four Women, and Chloë Sevigny will premiere Kitty at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. The films will live on Refinery29 beginning this summer.

In addition to Hollywood stars, Refinery is also championing digital celebrities. Gigi Gorgeous, for instance, will appear on the site’s dedicated Short Cuts Facebook page, comprising quick daily beauty tips.

Additionally, Refinery29 announced the launch of its virtual reality and 360-degree video studio VR29, comprising a team of eight that will aim to create opportunities for female creators in the field. For the remainder of 2016, Refinery says it will launch one VR or 360-degree video every week.

“We need to move away from the idea of selling ‘empowerment’ to women,” said Refinery29’s chief content officer Amy Emmerich in a statement. “We are proud to be collaborating with award-winning talent to create a slate of female-focused content that showcases what it is to be powerful in a non-traditional way.”

Filed under: NewFronts, Refinery29 by Geoff Weiss
No Comments »

YouTube appears to be planning a redesigned version of its website, and while those changes haven’t been officially announced, you can take them for a test drive if you’re so inclined. The video site’s “material design” offers larger images and channel pages that put an increased focus on banners.

The ability to activate YouTube’s material design was first discovered by Reddit user giorgiomarinel, who posted step-by-step instructions on the /r/youtube forum. The instructions only seem to work for users who are not signed into YouTube, so if you want to check out material design, the best course of action is to open up an incognito browsing window in Google Chrome.

Mashable, which discovered the relevant Reddit post, shared some screenshots from its own foray into material design. The new layout, with its big images and banners, seems as if it will eliminate much of the white space within the video site’s current design. Those empty areas were a source of consternation back when the “YouTube One Channel” layout was first rolled out in March 2013, so the material design could provide a much-needed update in that area.

Should YouTube make its material design into its default layout, the browser version of the video site will match its mobile version. A recent update to the YouTube app also put a big focus on thumbnail images, in hopes of increasing click-through rates and discoverability.

While no official details have been offered for the material design’s rollout date, YouTube could make more details available when it presents its annual Brandcast in New York on May 5th.

Above image via Android Police.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, YouTube by Sam Gutelle
No Comments »

Digital studio Astronauts Wanted has unveiled a shiny new development slate comprising eight series starring established and emerging social influencers, including Kian Lawley and JC Caylen, Timothy DeLaGhetto, Kingsley, Alexa Losey, and Hannah Witton.

“This really interesting new generation of creators and top talent reflect the spirit and creativity of their fans, which is right where we want to be,” stated Judy McGrath, president of Astronauts Wanted — and the former chairperson/CEO of MTV Networks, who created the company alongside Sony Music Entertainment. While Astronauts Wanted is behind projects like Hey USA and A Trip To Unicorn Island, its new slate represents the company’s first foray into categories like food, fashion, and sketch comedy.

Lawley and Caylen, for instance, will play themselves as well as all of the surrounding characters in the loosely scripted H8ters, about two videogame store employees who despise the social media heartthrobs and spend every day planning their demise.

And DeLaGhetto will headline Underbelly, a tour of the nation’s best hangover restaurants (check out a teaser below), while Kingsley will spoof the week’s most mock-worthy news stories on his sketch and comedy show, Smeared.

Emerging creator (and sex positive educator) Witton will star in Girl On Girl, a feminist twist on a daytime talk show where she will invite guests to help her explore what it means to be female, tackling issues like breast implants and dating apps.

On the scripted side, Losey will star in The Music Stopped But We Kept Dancing, about a 17-year-old politician’s daughter who is sent to a beach-side treatment facility after she’s caught cutting.

Other series coming soon from Astronauts Wanted include: For The Win, an exploration of one-of-a-kind sports including ostrich racing, swamp soccer, and equestrian skijoring; Fleek Peek, a show that will give viewers a glimpse into what it takes and how it feels to be a famous pop star; and Runaway, a scripted series about an Instagram starlet who has a public meltdown at a fan convention.

Filed under: Astronauts Wanted by Geoff Weiss
No Comments »

Two of YouTube’s most popular young stars are hitting the road together. Kian Lawley and Jc Caylen, who make videos together on their KianAndJc channel, will visit 25 American cities and several more international ones as part of their “Don’t Try This At Home” tour.

The duo’s slate of live performances shares its name with a book they are co-authoring, which HarperCollins is publishing. The book, like many other literary works written by members of the YouTube community, will be a non-fiction exploration of its subjects’ rise to digital stardom. It will arrive on June 28th, one day after its corresponding tour is set to begin in Los Angeles.

The US portion of the tour will last for slightly more than a month, with Lawley and Caylen criss-crossing the country before ending up in Boulder, Colorado on July 29th. At each stop, the two stars will greet their fans and treat them to an evening of skits, challenges, special guests, and music. When they’re done in the US, they’ll eventually make their way overseas, with specific international dates and locations to be announced later on.

This will not be the first time Lawley and Caylen have tourned together. Last year, they teamed up for “The Tour Before The Tour,” which like Don’t Try This At Home was produced by Mills Entertainment. Before that, they traveled the country as two members of the YouTube supergroup Our2ndLife; that tour was immortalized in the documentary film #O2LForever.

Tickets for individual dates, which retail for $32.50, are now available from the tour’s official website. VIP packages will also be unveiled at a later date.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
No Comments »

Bloomberg announced a new video series starring business and cultural luminaries like Warren Buffett, Steven Soderbergh, and the Dalai Lama at its NewFront presentation this afternoon in New York City.

At the same time, the company said it has renamed its branded content studio Kinection, which will henceforth “combine the kinetic energy of our proprietary data and technology with the connective power of our global, multi-platform scale,” according to the company. Bloomberg, which has significantly bolstered headcount at the newly-named studio, has previously partnered with a laundry list of brands including HBE, L’Oréal, Porsche, and UBS.

The aforementioned interview series, titled Big Problems. Big Thinkers., aims to tackle questions beyond business about ethics, and will feature anchor Terre Blair in conversation with bold-faced names like Bloomberg owner Michael Bloomberg, and Soderbergh. Soderbergh, who appeared at the NewFront event alongside Blair, told attendees that his aim in participating was to encourage viewers to maintain a sense of curiosity about the world. The series is sponsored by Cisco.

Other new series announced by Bloomberg include Success By Design, about the business behind the fashion industry; Peer to Peer, an interview series starring financier David Rubenstein; and Walk The Talk, which will focus on gender equality. This issue is so important, the company said, that it will also unveil a new Gender Equality Index by which it will rank companies on the Bloomberg Terminal.

At its NewFront, Bloomberg — which says it’s the most-viewed publication by C-Suite business decision-makers across all media platforms — said it would relaunch its technology vertical in the fall. The company also announced a new video ad product called VidPlus, which enables brands to sponsor in-video pop-up panels that can serve as polls, for instance, or provide ancillary information to clips as they’re rolling.

Filed under: News by Geoff Weiss
No Comments »

At its previous Newfronts presentations, BuzzFeed wowed attendees with its knowledge of data science, social psychology, and the other empirical concepts that drive its approach to content. At its 2016 pitch, however, BuzzFeed offered potential brand partners something more: an actual programming slate. For the first time, the viral content producer offered up a selection of scripted and unscripted shows, with the first results of its Development Partners program coming to light.

BuzzFeed launched Development Partners as a way to keep its best creative minds in house while also allowing them to explore bigger, serialized projects. The Try Guys, for example, will expand their flagship brand with a show called The Try Kids, which will invite youngsters to attempt activities they’ve never experienced before. Quinta Brunson, known for her comedic work across BuzzFeed’s digital network, will lead a 12-episode sitcom called Broke. Finally, another one of BuzzFeed’s homegrown stars, Ashly Perez, will offer up a sequel to her You Do You web series.

The shows will all exemplify BuzzFeed’s philosophy of inclusiveness. “We don’t have to feel alone,” said BuzzFeed Motion Pictures boss Ze Frank. In referring to his multicultural roster of creative partners, he said it’s “not the time to slow them down and force them into some lane.” Instead, he termed them “multi-hyphenates:” writer-actor-director-producers.

The work these multi-hyphenates create will be served across a variety of platforms. BuzzFeed’s distribution network is now so wide that, according to CEO Jonah Peretti, only 23% of the company’s content is consumed on its own website and mobile apps. In particular, BuzzFeed now finds a large portion of its traffic on Facebook, where it continues to be excited about its future growth potential.

One property that exemplifies the company’s charge onto Facebook is Tasty, the culinary gif-making operation that gets thousands of shares in the hours after it launches a new post. As Frank puts it, Tasty has now become a huge force no matter where it is distributed. Or, to put it more simply: “Tasty represents a universe.”

Filed under: Articles, Buzzfeed, Featured, NewFronts, News by Sam Gutelle
No Comments »

The New York Times is figuring out how to bring its brand of high-quality journalism to new platforms. At the first Newfronts presentation of 2016, the Grey Lady announced a new initiative called Story X, through which it will explore experimental ideas.

Story X, according to New York Times Chief Revenue Officer Meredith Kopit Levien, will be “a place and a space and a lab, and a team of journalists and creators and technologists who are dedicated” to innovative storytelling. Levien brought up augmented reality, Alexa, and connected cars as a few sample technologies the new unit could look into. The company noted that its efforts to expand into VR, which it discussed at its Newfronts presentation last year, could be thought of as a precursor to Story X.

The New York Times would just be betting on experimental technology. At the same time, it also used the Newfronts stage to discuss what it terms its biggest slate of original programming to date. The publication will premiere the following shows:

• The Fine Line, which will use the 2016 Summer Olympics as a platform to explore the athletic effort that separates gold medal winners from their competition.
• Out There,
• The Art of Better, whose subjects will be game-changing entrepreneurs.
• Voyages, the Times’ first original series for VR devices, which will follow its photographers as they head out on assignment.
• The Creators, a T Magazine production, which will look inside the homes and workspaces of artists.
• Secret Cities, another T Magazine series, which will uncover hidden culture in New York, London, Paris, and Milan during those cities’ respective Fashion Weeks.
• Chartland, which is based on the success of The Upshot.
• Two Tales of a City, in which a pair of travelers with vastly different budgets tackle the same city.

As it rolls out this content slate, the Times hopes to find eager advertisers to work with through its T Brand Studio unit. At its event, it said that T Brand Studio, now two-and-a-half years old, has produced 150 projects.

Filed under: Articles, Channels, Featured, NewFronts, News by Sam Gutelle
No Comments »

Parks and Recreation star Nick Offerman has been named host of this year’s Webby Awards ceremony.

Offerman “perfectly captures the creativity and ingenuity that the Webby Awards love to recognize,” executive director David-Michel Davies told The Hollywood Reporter, which was first to report the news. Offerman won a Television Critics Association Award for his work on Parks, as well as a Critics’ Choice Television Award nomination for his work in FX’s Fargo series.

Past Webby hosts — who are tasked with enforcing the awards show’s infamous five-word acceptance speeches — include Hannibal Buress, Rob Corddry, Lisa Kudrow, and Patton Oswalt. Winners of the 20th annual Webby Awards — including Tyler Oakley, Jimmy Fallon, and Making A Murderer — were announced on April 26. The show will be held in New York City on May 16 and be available to stream online the very next day.

Filed under: News, Webby Awards by Geoff Weiss
No Comments »

The 2016 Digital Content NewFronts kicked off this morning at a breakfast hosted by business development firm MediaLink, where top executives discussed a dearth in “premium” advertising in today’s digital media landscape.

“We recognized several years ago that the advertising experience did not match up with the content experience,” said Jim Bankoff, chairman and CEO of Vox Media — owner of The Verge, Re/code, Eater, Racked, and more. “Advertising is content, and advertising is user experience.”

But what exactly does premium advertising look like? That is less clear thus far. “I think it’s kind of like the Supreme Court’s definition of pornography,” joked MediaLink founder and CEO Michael Kassan: “‘I don’t know it, but I know it when I see it.’” However, the ultimate aim is to get ads on creative par with content. “What nirvana sounds like is the moment when the consumer is not distinguishing between the content and the advertising,” Kassan says.

To offer so-called premium quality advertising at scale, Bankoff announced that Vox was building upon its Concert advertising tool, which — following a recent partnership with NBCUniversal — enables marketers to buy ads across the two companies’ combined television and digital properties. Now, Bankoff announced, Vox will partner with Google to make Concert ads available through the search giant’s programmatic infrastructure.

Harry Kargman, founder and CEO of mobile advertising firm Kargo, agrees that today’s ad business has lost the creative flair of yesteryear. “When you look at programmatic today, we’ve been really good at the signals part, we’ve been really good at the data part — we’ve lost the art part,” he says.

“It’s great to have the right device, right message, right time, right context,” adds Kassan. “But we are in the world of marketing where there’s a bit of serendipity that needs to enter it. Because if not, we’re all just digit heads at that point.”

Filed under: MediaLink, NewFronts, Vox Media by Geoff Weiss
No Comments »