BITE TV targets 18-34 year olds with online, mobile and TV broadcasts

Today’s re-launch of Bite TV signals that GlassBOX Television Inc. is ready to take a bite out of youth-oriented channels’ ratings by relying on low-cost, in-house productions. It also sets the stage for the November 24th unveiling of AUX TV- a new digital, interactive, music channel and website.“All of our channels, you’ll see at GlassBOX as we launch more and more, will be targeted to a similar 18-34 year old demographic. Some, like Bite, will be more male. Others will be more balanced, like AUX, and some may eventually be more female,” says co-CEO Raja Khanna. “At the end of the day, we’re building a company that targets 18-34 year olds.”AUX, which doesn’t have a carriage agreement yet, will initially be launched as a two-hour nested block on Bite. Its website, however, will be self-sufficient- with its own content and advertisers.Unlike MuchMusic and MTV, AUX and Bite TV (Rogers’ channel 322, Bell Expressvus 530) have been built as cross-platforms from the start, incorporating online, mobile and television broadcasts into their business and programming model. Khanna says this makes it, and Bite TV, very popular with advertisers.“Advertisers have been incredibly excited about what we’ve been telling them,” he says. “If you can go to one place, sponsor one show and get impressions from the target audience you’re going after, then you’re laughing … Not only do they get exposure on TV, on websites, on about twenty other websites that we have syndication deals with, such as YouTube, but also mobile phones, where we are distributed on all the major carriers."“Last year, the Internet was ranked as the primary source of entertainment for young people. Who’s the broadcaster that’s able to reach 18-34 year olds, that speaks to them, on the web, mobile, TV? I think advertisers have been feeling it, especially (with the) broadcasters, and that’s that it is extremely difficult to reach this target demo of 18-34 year olds,” explains Khanna. That’s where GlassBOX comes in.Offering advertisers a one-stop shop – which is really a slew of shops – to attract consumers, is a cornerstone of GlassBOX’s revenue model. Creating content that will attract the highly desirable 18-34 year old demographic is another integral ingredient.AUX’s programming will focus on new music; including videos and reality programming. Shows such as Strange Notes hosted by George Pettit, frontman of Canadian band Alexisonfire and Band Tips with musician Chris Mills appear to offer some strong flagship programs to the line-up which will also include reality, magazine and documentary type shows.Low-cost, in-house productions will dominate their offerings. “Our costs to produce an hour of TV are generally about $20,000. We’re not trying to compete with Lost or Prison Break – that’s a different world – but we think there’s a place for this type of content,” adds Khanna.“Mainstream media, when it comes to video content, even on the web, aren’t providing the hardcore music fans with what they want... That’s the opportunity we saw to get into the scene.”GlassBOX aims to do this by hiring young talent. “If we find the best of the YouTube generation – the ones that actually want to be professionals – we’re not just talking about user-generated content. These are people with a professional degree in radio and television arts, who are in their young twenties and who may have established themselves online, but are now looking the next step,” explains Khanna. Young talent, he continues, comes cheap. Most of their content will be self-produced; 70% on Bite TV and nearly 90% for AUX.They are also hoping to capture a greater share of the online market with glossy websites with large, high quality video players. “Our video player on bite.ca and aux.tv is pretty much the most advanced video player out there, in the world,” says Khanna. Both sites are using the latest version of Brightcode. “I’m pretty sure we’re the only Canadian company operating on version three.”While GlassBOX should be considered a content producer, they aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to technology. “In the world of broadband and broadband entertainment, I think the world has gotten to the point where there’s so much incredible technology out there that it really doesn’t make a lot of sense to rebuild it,” he says.GlassBOX’s investors reads like a who’s who of the business – Ted Riley, former executive managing director of International Television Distribution of Alliance Atlantis Communications; Gary Slaight, former president and CEO of Standard Broadcasting; Jay Switzer, former president and CEO of CHUM Limited; and, Stephen Tapp, former president and COO of XM Radio Canada. Tapp, who also headed CHUM Television, will serve as an advisor on the GlassBOX's overall strategy.“This is not just a short turn-around where in six months you’ll see major rewards. This is longer term investment and about building market share and I think what the heavyweights found was that at their old companies, their financial policies, their corporate policies, didn’t allow them to do what they wanted to do. A lot of our investors have recently left their companies or their companies were acquired…. and they came here and said, “this is what needs to be done in Canada, let’s do it.”A $5 million round of seed money last summer helped. But in coming months, Khanna expects to reach out to investors again. “Despite market conditions we feel like we’re in a high-growth space and have a lot of ideas for expanding our business,” he adds.

BITE TV targets 18-34 year olds with online, mobile and TV broadcasts

Broadcast | November 10, 2008

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