Live today at 4pm ET
Rob Barnett is not new to cutting-edge TV. A former executive at MTV and VH1, he was part of a team developing some of the most innovative targeted entertainment in the world. He's not new to the concept of "live" broadcast either — as the former President of Programming at CBS Radio, he developed a good sense of what it takes to produce shows that work on the fly. He's not even new to YouTube — his "My Damn Channel" is closing in on 60 million video views.
So maybe it makes sense that as part of the YouTube initiative to create high-quality, ready-for-big-screen channels, Barnett cooked up the concept of a live show for that space. And today " My Damn Channel Live" premiers at 4 p.m. ET – 1 p.m. PT. It begins with "a hosted, LIVE, 30-minute, weekly comedy series including world premieres of original videos from established and emerging talent." The rest of the weekdays, MDC will host a live interactive, 10-minute feature show.
I say maybe it makes sense, because this is still a fairly gutsy proposition. Live shows are always a risk. Doing it online, while not as prone to streaming issues as it once was, only ups that excitement. And though YouTube introduced live almost a year ago, the watching culture there is still on-demand.
Barnett is not phased. It's just one show of many MDC produces, he comes ready with clear reasons this can be a success and he hired a crack staff to alleviate concerns. In our email interview, Barnett explains why live and what it takes to get ready, how YouTube helped and what this means for moving onto the TV screen.
There are a few initiatives around the web that are live, but they usually deal with marketing or news. Tell me why you're taking an entertainment show that direction?
Barnett
At our company, we always believed the new revolution will be programmed. Endless online choice is a power we all love, but there's a need for some of us to do the work of selecting and creating the very best original content, and offering that programming much in the same way that television has always done in the past. Highly promoted, destination programming – with the true energy and interactivity that only LIVE can bring – gives the audience a chance to experience the best of old and new media simultaneously. We're also delivering comedy on My Damn Channel LIVE and we think the entertaining rewards are worth all the risks that come with going live every weekday at 4pm ET.
A 30-minute show is also a pretty big departure from the YouTube norm. Was moving to the TV screen on your mind as you developed this idea?
Yes. in the modern moment, you've got to create content for every screen. And I also believe you've got to give advertisers an easier way to align with Internet programming that's high quality, consistent, and has the scale that matters. There's no doubt more people will look to the Internet for what you used to be able to only get from television. And we're going to capture very valuable data by being some of the first people to attempt this obvious idea to program the Internet with a live, hosted show. Our Wednesday show runs from 4-4:30pm ET. The other weekday shows run as 10-minute live blasts at 4pm ET. And all the programming will also be available on demand.
What were the preparations necessary to get this live show ready?
We've built an Internet Television Network from scratch — at a fraction of the cost of a cable net. Our Co-Founder/COO Warren Chao, Director of Content, Jesse Cowell & I have executive produced over 30 new My Damn Channel Original comedy series which all premiere inside our daily LIVE show. We completed a nationwide search to hire Beth Hoyt to host our show. We hired Melissa Schneider — one of the most professionally poised producers I've ever worked with to be our Showrunner. Melissa hired a solid team – including our head writer Krister Johnson. And our show director Jack Ferry to lead us into blissful battle reinventing TV on the Interwebs. We stocked the joint with more caffeine and snacks than we've ever had before. We're booking amazing talented artists and friends to appear as guests. We even decided to accompany the premiere of MY DAMN CHANNEL LIVE with a total relaunch of our site. www.MyDamnChannel.com was just blown up and brought back to life by our Editor-in-Chief, Maria Diokno. We now have a whole new destination with a totally new design, new features, our new blog network, and the opportunity for users to more easily interact and share everything we've got.
What kind of added expense are your encountering in doing a live show? Did the partnership with YouTube make doing this possible?
The password is "revenue advance." We're incredibly encouraged by the fact that YouTube and many of the other portals are deciding to fund the creation of premium content giving fans and advertisers more bang for their time and their buck.
The show is about premiering new videos. Can you explain the differences between discovering talent for shows on YouTube versus on traditional networks?
We felt it was very important to bring back some of the playbook I used at MTV (say it with me) back in the day. World Premiere Videos came with significant pre-promotion and marketing to let the audience know when the good shit was coming. We've always believed that our job was not to imitate YouTube or other outlets that let anyone upload a video. We've always made it our job to look for the very best talent and treat our artists like HBO or Showtime have done in the past. We work with countless major talent from TV and film. But we've also worked to break new talents like Daily Grace, Mark Malkoff, or the creators of You Suck at Photoshop who are responsible for some of our biggest hits. In 2011, we hired Molly Templeton as our Director of Talent & Audience Development. Molly works with me to run our YouTube partnership on a daily basis and we're building a My Damn Channel Vlog Network, working with some of the most awesome talent on YouTube to create maximum collaboration and cross-promotion throughout our various sites and channels.
As the new high quality channels start to emerge, I wonder whether you and other producers have an idea of what constitutes success.
YouTube has done a great job giving every video maker free access to insider's knowledge about how to increase subscribers, views and engagement through their YouTube Next Creator Playbook. In pure business terms, success will be determined by recouping and re-upping. We'll be working to entertain your brains off every day and give you a ton of new reasons to watch, to share and to engage with our new live show.
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