Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA), home to the world’s premiere entertainment brands, unveiled Viacom Digital Studios and announced an upcoming slate of digital programming, platform partnerships, talent deals and the expansion of VidCon at its first-ever Digital Content NewFront.
Viacom Digital Studios detailed its plans to deliver hundreds of hours of premium, original content with Viacom stars and digital-native talent from BET, Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon across the leading social and online video platforms for Viacom’s massive social footprint of more than 850 million fans.
“The launch of Viacom Digital Studios is an amazing opportunity to reimagine our iconic brands for a new generation of young, mobile-first audiences,” Kelly Day, President, Viacom Digital Studios. “We’re bringing the power and scale of Viacom’s global content engine and storytelling capabilities to entertain and engage our fans whenever and wherever they’re consuming content.”
The new content slate includes: “The Majah Hype Show,” a new sketch comedy show by Majah Hype for BET that addresses the hottest trending topics in the news; “You Up? With Nikki Glaser,” a live daily morning show for Facebook Watch from Comedy Central that highlights celebrity news with guest appearances from comedy heavyweights; “Cooking in the Crib with Snooki,” expanding the Cribs franchise with our favorite Jersey girl as she brings a whole new flavor to the kitchen on MTV’s YouTube channel; “The JoJo & BowBow Show Show,” a series of animated shorts from Nickelodeon starring JoJo Siwa and her furry best friend BowBow; and “Road to VidCon,” a new video series in partnership with MTV that documents the journey of a young creator heading to one of the biggest events in his or her life.
The presentation also featured new global deals with Snap Inc. and Twitter to deliver original content and talent from BET, Comedy Central and MTV that builds on Viacom’s legacy as creators and curators of pop culture.
In addition to bringing back exclusive red carpet coverage of BET and MTV’s biggest award shows and events, Viacom is joining forces with Twitter to give fans worldwide the daily trending news they crave through the unique lens of Viacom’s brands. New show formats include:
BET Breaks: The rundown-style show delivers the African American perspective on pop culture including breaking music, entertainment, sports news stories and trending topics being discussed on Twitter.
Comedy Central’s Creator’s Room: Experience an intimate view of Comedy Central’s Creator’s room as the team offers their real-time hilarious and satirical takes on what is trending in pop culture daily news through a comedic lens.
MTV News: MTV News will bring daily reports of what’s trending with fans, tapping into issues that are important through MTV’s unique stance in youth culture.
MTV News International: Curated by MTV News editors and presenters, these visually dynamic, global news reports instantly tap into trending current events on Twitter, and include celebrity and fan reactions.
Viacom renewed its partnership with Snap Inc. to develop and produce new Shows and increased content around Viacom’s tentpoles and live events for Snapchat’s Discover page.
Comedy Central introduced The Creators Program, a new digital in-house initiative that taps into the #1 brand in comedy’s rich history of identifying, developing and launching emerging talent. The Creators Program will be the anchor of the brand’s digital strategy to expand its social footprint, connect daily with fans of comedy, and generate branded opportunities for advertising partners through the creation of provocative and culturally relevant original short-form content.
VidCon announced further international expansion to London, bringing the largest gathering of online video creators and their fans to the ExCel Center from February 14-17, 2019.
Viacom Digital Studios is already off to a strong start, reaching 4.3 billion social video views and 4.7 billion minutes viewed domestically in the second quarter – increases of 70 and 78% year-on-year, respectively.
Additional new original programming and talent partnerships announced on stage included the following across BET, Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon.
Editor-in-Chief | Seat42F, a leading source of entertainment news, information, television and movie resources.
