GlassBox searching for the elusive ‘digital popcorn’

GlassBox Television Inc. wants to become a top source for comedy, music and travel-related content without relying on traditional TV to do so, the company’s CEO says. GlassBox's team of “digital ninjas” will roll out a parade of online and mobile tools this year to supplement its traditional broadcast channels with other revenue streams, CEO Raja Khanna told The Wire Report in an interview in December. “The 1920s and 30s movie theatres were really looking for something to grow to take it to the next level, getting beyond ticket sales alone, and that’s when popcorn sales came in,” Khanna said. “We’re now experimenting in what’s the digital popcorn.” The broadcaster of music, comedy and travel specialty channels Aux, BiteTV, and Travel+Escape, respectively, GlassBox has been a Canadian leader in integrating broadcast content into new media distribution, analysts say. Founded as an interactive service, GlassBox’s original channel, BiteTV, aired one of the first Canadian on-air broadcasts with interactive components, including text-to-screen features and on-screen real-time trivia. The company was also one of the first to offer mobile video content and won a 2007 Emmy Award in the interactive channel category. “GlassBox was one of the first companies in Canada that took a risk in developing products for different platforms,” Richard Paradis, president of consulting firm Groupe CIC, told The Wire Report. GlassBox now hopes to make its three specialty channels the leading brands in their respective genres. “We want to build that new, mid-sized media company in Canada,” Khanna told The Wire Report during a separate interview at the NextMedia conference in Toronto in December. “We want to do that through creating the best content around these communities of interest and being smart about these digital technologies and consumer behaviours.” With rising competition from over-the-top, online programming and the potential for reduced broadcasting revenues, the company recognizes that consumer behaviour is shifting, and its forays into the new media space may be more important than ever. The problem, Khanna said, is that nobody knows exactly what will be the “digital popcorn” of television. But GlassBox will put a digital media team to work in 2012 in an aggressive campaign to build the brand’s name and increase its share of the digital revenue pie. “You’re going to see a whole slew of what’s called experimentation, including mobile games, mobile apps, mobile magazines, online booking transactional things,” Khanna said. “We’re doing a lot and it’s all going to be rolled out over the next few months. But I’d be lying if I told you I know which ones are going to be a hit.” The first step, he said, is to make all of their websites and web content mobile friendly. That will happen this month, he said. “We expect a massive spike in our mobile traffic because it’s just going to be that much more enjoyable to use those sites,” he said. The company will also roll out a series of apps in 2012, including a travel-related game, magazine apps, and a Canada-wide event aggregator they call the Concert Sherpa. “ is essentially a companion app for anyone looking to go out on the town anywhere in Canada,” Khanna said, which will operate in partnership with Exclaim! magazine and which is tentatively set for release early this year. “They’ll find out what’s going on, what’s happening, listings and reviews, and all sorts of stuff like that,” he said. The app is designed to make Aux “your trusted partner for all your music needs,” Khanna said, and to help drive people to the channel and website, which features sponsored content. “They’re obviously tuning in to the young people,” Paradis said, referring to the users of the Concert Sherpa app. “They all go to their apps to find out which restaurant is closest and which events are on.” GlassBox's travel, comedy and music genres also tap into high-demand niches, Paradis said. Aux and BiteTV currently count about 1.6 million and 1.9 million subscribers respectively, and Travel + Escape reached more than 1.3 million viewers in one week when it was re-launched in late October, GlassBox told The Wire Report. “You can’t be all over the map. You’ve got to be very specific and target areas and develop relationships with people,” Paradis noted. The company's new magazine apps, under the Aux and Travel+Escape brands, will be available for tablets to tap into the “lean back” consumption habits that advertisers and sponsors value. “You’ll see articles and features that are a little more in-depth and allow us to explore the story a little more and spend a bit more time with the subject matter,” Khanna said. The company is looking for new ways to help advertisers reach end users. “The more points of engagement you have for your audience, the more attractive we think we’ll be to our advertisers,” he said. Khanna said online and mobile platforms accounted for “probably close to 30 per cent” of the company’s business in 2011 and they expect that figure to grow. “There’s a lot of promise there and they’re certainly committing to deliver a lot of things,” independent technology analyst Carmi Levy said in an interview. “But we’re nowhere near the point where we can assess whether they will be successful or not because, quite frankly, we haven’t seen any of yet.” Levy said GlassBox’s aggressive digital media approach is akin to that of Google Inc. “They’re throwing everything at the wall to see if it sticks,” he said. He said the aggressive attitude is more typical of large, vertically integrated broadcasters, but smaller companies may be working on similar strategies. The ones that survive, he said, will be those that find a way to tap into digital user engagement and adapt their strategies to shifting patterns of usage. “The landscape is absolutely littered with first movers who achieved great success by being the first to create and exploit any given market,” he said. “But ultimately they failed because they could not adapt after that initial success.” Paradis said he believes GlassBox has an upper hand on companies thanks to its history of digital innovation and the broadcasting expertise of its incoming owner and new executive chairman, Michael MacMillan. MacMillan's company, Blue Ant Media Inc., announced a deal in April to acquire a controlling share of GlassBox with Khanna as CEO and Jeffrey Elliott as GlassBox's new president and chief strategy officer. In a release at the time, GlassBox said the acquisition would accelerate its digital growth strategy. “He thought was a growth sector and he wanted to be a part of it,” Paradis said of MacMillan, who built a media empire under his former creation, Alliance Atlantis, which he sold in 2007. Blue Ant also looks to be gearing up for a big year in 2012. In a pair of December announcements, Blue Ant revealed that the Toronto Star’s controlling company, Torstar Corporation, had acquired a 25 per cent stake in the broadcaster, and that Blue Ant had also acquired another Canadian broadcaster, High Fidelity HDTV, as well as its four specialty channels. Quoted in one of those releases, Khanna suggested the acquisition of High Fidelity HDTV could also benefit GlassBox in the long run. “The combined business will provide increased opportunities to engage audiences with great content on all platforms,” he was quoted as saying. Paradis noted that MacMillan is an adept businessman with a keen sense of where to take a company—which is likely a good sign as GlassBox continues to seek its digital popcorn. “If they’re doing something, they think there’s a good chance that it’s going to work,” Paradis said. “If MacMillan is backing something, he’s not going to just throw his money around fool-heartedly.” nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

GlassBox searching for the elusive ‘digital popcorn’

News | 01/04/2012 10:06 pm EST

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