After five years in the business, Fullscreen announced a rebrand at its NewFront presentation on Monday in New York City. It will become Fullscreen Media.
Fullscreen’s work is divided in three buckets: Fullscreen Creator Network, Fullscreen Entertainment, and Fullscreen Brandworks. The company hopes a grasp on the buckets of creators, entertainment, and brands will set it apart as the multi-channel network turned media company of choice for advertisers.
In the Entertainment division, Fullscreen launched its own streaming video on demand (SVOD) service last month, with a Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart-helmed film Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. The $4.99 per month price tag is half the price of YouTube Red.
“You can think of it like HBO Now for young millennials who grew up on digital media,” said Fullscreen CEO George Strompolos of the 3-week-old venture. “We’re seeing an average time spent per use of 48 minutes.”
It also runs a standalone Rooster Teeth subscription for $4.99 a month. The company has also fronted tours like Girls Night In and INTOUR, showcasing the biggest names in digital entertainment in an IRL setting.
“Technology and tastes have shifted, and we’re not going back to where we were,” explained Fullscreen General Manager Pete Stein. “We move toward the content ecosystem model. In this new world, audiences are harder to find, yet they’re more engaged. The line between media company and audience is very blurry, and the power of influence is massive.”
For brands, Fullscreen Media announced its All-Star Collabs initiative to put creators like Eva Gutowski and Devinsupertramp in direct partnership with brands. It’s also added more star power to its roster, tapping new creators including Andrew Huang, Mia Stammer, Shannon Beveridge, Cammie Scott, Carly Cristman, and Neels Visser.
Fullscreen’s SVP of Entertainment Billy Parks announced another demographic that Fullscreen will focus on: millennial parents.
“These families just aren’t making TV shows on the Internet,” said Parks. “What they want is parents to create shows that feel like friendships.”
Fullscreen called the millennial parents video movement a reinvention of the format, partnering with six families to create shows to connect with advertisers. It’s also packaged their channels into offerings called HisScreen and HerScreen, groupings of the top 50 channels targeted to female and male audiences. HerScreen boasts 14 million viewers a day, placing Fullscreen on par or better with shows from the biggest television networks. For men, HisScreen can beat the biggest male-oriented shows like The Walking Dead or the NBA All-Star Game.
“These are the millennial men you simply cannot reach through sports,” said Kevin McGunn, Fullscreen’s head of sales.
Of course, to the consumers, advertising buckets, and demos don’t matter so much. What matters is the content and creators delivered. A great example of that is Rooster Teeth, one of digital’s most dedicated communities. Founder and CCO Burnie Burns took the stage to show off Immersion 360, its newest offering, that puts viewers in the center of the action using virtual reality. He also highlighted how the Rooster Teeth brand drives viewership and loyalty, pointing out that the soundtrack to animated series RWBY hit No. 1 on the iTunes charts this year.
“Just to show you how engaged our audience is, No. 2 on the charts was Drake, and No. 3 was Beyoncé,” explained Burns.
