DirecTV Inc. of El Segundo is continuing to ramp up its original programming as the satellite giant tries to keep subscribers. It’s a strategy that’s going to continue, even if AT&T Inc. is successful in its bid to buy the company.
DirecTV last week announced that it will air a new, three-hour National Football League-centric talk show hosted by Rich Eisen on DirecTV’s Audience Network Channel. DirecTV earlier this month announced that its first original drama series, “Rogue,” received a 20-episode renewal for a third and fourth season. In April, DirecTV commissioned its first comedy series, “Things You Shouldn’t Say Past Midnight,” an adaptation of Peter Ackerman’s play of the same name.
All of those shows are to be aired on DirecTV’s channel, which is only available to DirecTV subscribers.
Similar to Netflix, Hulu and other content distributors, the idea is to offer up programming that is not available elsewhere.
DirecTV last month said in its earnings report that it lost 34,000 subscribers in the second quarter, down from the 84,000 it lost in the same period a year earlier.
Offering original programming is a relatively low-cost method of buying subscriber loyalty. For example, “Rogue,” which co-stars Cole Hauser and Thandie Newton, cost DirecTV about $800,000 to $1 million an episode to produce in its first season last year.
In an interview with the Business Journal last year, Chris Long, a senior vice president at DirecTV who oversees original content, said that the strategy is one way the company is battling to retain customers.
DirecTV also could begin producing even more original programming if AT&T’s proposed $49 billion takeover of the company gets approval, DirecTV Chief Executive Michael White recently told Fortune.
All’s Fair
Bob Vanech wants to bring a world’s fair to Los Angeles.
Vanech and his partners at Los Angeles World’s Fair FPC are working to produce a fair that would begin in 2022 and last for two years, culminating with the proposed return of the Summer Olympics to Los Angeles.
Vanech, a tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist, has together with other investors put in about $110,000 to get the project started. They plan to formally announce the initiative this week and are in the process of raising $3 million or more of seed funding and crowdfunding to move the project along and get the word out.
“Our hurdle is popular support and funding,” Vanech said. “That’s where our efforts are going now.”
The proposed theme of the fair is the “Connected City.” Pavilions would be staged near subway stops to emphasize the use of public transportation, and part of the idea is to showcase the region’s new infrastructure. The event would also spotlight new technologies from companies related to entertainment, transportation and other innovations.
Vanech’s firm is looking to raise $2 million of Series A funding, along with between $1 million and $10 million from a crowdfunding campaign that will begin in the next three or so months. The money would go toward hiring staff and covering other overhead and planning costs. The company currently has about a dozen paid employees.
It also recently began selling $500 memberships that give people access to galas and other perks. The firm is a flexible use corporation, meaning it has both a focus on doing a social good and creating a profit for shareholders.
Income would come from media rights, ticket sales, sponsorships and merchandising.
The idea began in a discussion among leaders of non-profit RailLA, a local group that has worked to promote a high-speed rail line between San Francisco and Los Angeles. As that project was delayed, the focus shifted to producing an L.A.-centric world’s fair. It would be the first world’s fair in the United States since 1984, when there was a six-month event in New Orleans.
Vanech’s now lining up endorsements and working on approvals from local and state government and an international governing body of world’s fairs.
Comic Con TV
Cinedigm of Century City is preparing to launch Con TV, an Internet channel devoted to the culture of Comic Con events in partnership with Comic Con event producer Wizard World of El Segundo.
Cinedigm announced earlier this month that it has acquired reality competition series “Fight of the Living Dead” as the first show slated to air on the channel, which will launch later this year and be available on Internet set-top boxes.
The reality show “follows nine YouTube stars as they attempt to survive the first 24 hours of a simulated zombie apocalypse.”
Con TV will offer free, advertising-supported content as well as premium subscription content.
Staff reporter Jonathan Polakoff can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 226.
