Video Publisher ATTN To Pilot Its Version Of ’60 Minutes’ For Showtime

Back in January, ATTN revealed America Versus, an exploration of global cultures that will be produced in association with Paramount Television. About a month later, the social-savvy content publisher has revealed another TV project in the works. It will create a pilot called ATTN: on Showtime, which will employ a “news magazine” format and will be distributed by Showtime.

Deadline describes ATTN: on Showtime as a “60 Minutes style news magazine pilot” that will explore stories of interest to ATTN and its left-leaning audience. “Part of the way we pitched this show is we wanted to cover a lot of issues that are getting traction online that haven’t migrated fully to the TV zeitgeist,” said ATTN CEO Matthew Segal.”I think we have our finger on the pulse of engagement digitally. We can use that insight to translate that to TV.”

The “pulse of engagement” Segal speaks of is centered, at least in ATTN’s case, on Facebook. There, the news brand has more than 5.7 million followers

. That level of popularity has led to opportunities across multiple platforms, and ATTN has also been bolstered by the $18.6 million funding round it raised in 2016.

Will the news magazine format help ATTN establish itself on TV? That strategy has already worked wonders for another digital-savvy brand, Vice, which made its own leap to premium cable by bringing a show Vice to HBO in 2015. More than 50 episodes of that program have since aired.

Will Showtime take a shine to ATTN as HBO did to Vice? If they do, there could be a lot more than just a pilot on the way.