Viacom Unveils Viacom Digital Studios @ First-Ever Digital Content NewFront

Original Viacom Inc. Press Release via Business Wire:

Viacom Unveils Viacom Digital Studios @ First-Ever Digital Content NewFront

New Slate of Original Programming and Return of Hit Series from BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon

New Global Partnerships with Snap Inc. and Twitter

VidCon Announces International Expansion to London

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Hosted by Arturo Castro with Special Appearances by Liza Koshy, JoJo Siwa, Jay Versace, Justina Valentine, Akilah Hughes, De’arra and Ken, Jace Norman, Hank Green and more...

April 30, 2018 03:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--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.

BET

• The Majah Hype Show (YouTube): A weekly sketch comedy show hosted by comedian and actor Majah Hype and featuring a rotating ensemble cast of fellow comedians. The show will provide viewers with Majah’s comedic take on trending topics and current social commentary in the news along with hilarious original skits.
• De’arra and Ken Talent Deal: With over 4.5 million YouTube subscribers, De’arra and Ken of the popular digital series “De’arra and Ken 4 Life” are a picture-perfect example of #relationshipgoals. The social influencer couple has signed an overall talent deal with BET to perform in and create original shows for BET Digital and bring their magnetic brand of fun to a mobile screen near you.
• Freestyle Friday (YouTube, Facebook): A revival of the hugely popular Freestyle Friday segment from BET’s hit show “106 & Park.” Once a month, leading up to “The Hip Hop Awards,” aspiring and accomplished emcees will be invited to an open mic session, streamed live on YouTube from their various locations across the globe. The monthly event will be hosted by a resident hip-hop aficionado and have surprise guest appearances from top emcees, DJs, producers and label execs.
• Rate the Bars (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter): A returning, original music series featuring respected emcees rating lyrics from other artists with unfiltered honesty. The show presents lyrics unattached from their authors making the ratings of each song truly based on the quality of the bar without bias.
• Beautycon (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram): Partnership with Beautycon to co-create over 50 beauty tutorials focused on an African American audience. These videos reimagine the tutorial format with stunning visuals and shareable videos that showcase the latest trends and offer a wide array of beauty-influencer talent.

Comedy Central

• You Up? With Nikki Glaser (Facebook Watch): A weekly show highlighting celebrity news, spun off from the comedian and television hosts live daily morning show on SiriusXM’s Comedy Central Radio. Nikki, along with her co-host and touring buddy, Tom Thakkar welcome comedy heavyweights like Ricky Gervais, Bill Hader, Amy Schumer, and Tracy Morgan to overshare about dating and sex, dissect pop culture and news, and poke fun at anyone who deserves it!
• Comedy Central’s The Creators Program: The inaugural Creators Program will be led by Nate Dern (Funny Or Die, Upright Citizens Brigade), who has been tapped as Head of Creative for The Creators Program. Dern will lead five creators who were hand selected from over 1,000 applicants after a rigorous audition process that kicked-off in February through a call for submissions via Comedy Central’s social platforms. These creators all have audience-facing personalities with strong, authentic points of view. They will be writing, producing and starring in a daily reactive series and a weekly-scripted series with both living across Comedy Central’s social platforms, most prominently Facebook and YouTube. The inaugural creators are Ryan Beck, Chris Cotton, Hanna Dickinson, Jordan Mendoza and Natasha Vaynblat.
  
  • Daily Topical Show (title TBA): In this original, daily, pop-culture themed show, the five creators discuss the day’s trending topics from their own various points of view, through a comedic lens.
  • Comedy Central Central: Set inside Comedy Central’s NY headquarters, this weekly workplace scripted series follows the lives of the employees of the #1 brand in comedy at Comedy Central Central.
• Meet Your First Black Girlfriend (YouTube, Facebook): A new series exploring Akilah Hughes’ real life take on dating outside of her race. Her authentic presentation and hilarious sensibility on a culturally relevant experience and perspective will resonate with fans.
• Between-the-Scenes (Facebook, FB Watch, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter): This ongoing, Emmy Award-winning short form series features Trevor Noah interacting directly with the audience about topics political, pop-culture, and personal, and has over 150 million cross-platform streams since its launch last year.
• Hack into Broad City (Facebook, Facebook Watch, YouTube): The popular, critically-acclaimed exclusive extension of “Broad City” eavesdrops on the candid, often outrageous video chat sessions between Abbi and Ilana and keeps viewers engaged between seasons. New episodes of the Emmy-nominated “Hack Into Broad City” will debut later this year.

MTV

• Girl Code (Snapchat): Bringing back “Girl Code” and updating it for the social generation in short-form series featuring both original cast members and up-and-coming comedians who will dispense advice and overshare about what it’s like to grow up and be an adult.
• Teen Code (YouTube): In the tradition of “Girl Code,” “Teen Code” will feature influencers and teens discussing real life issues.
  Promposal (Snapchat): “Promposal” follows teens as they pull out all the stops to land their dream dates.
• Fab or Fad (YouTube): The series dives deep into the latest beauty, fitness and lifestyle trends that are blowing up newsfeeds. Two hosts determine what’s actually fabulous and what’s just a passing fad.
• MTV Decoded (Facebook, YouTube): “MTV Decoded” is a weekly series where the fearless Franchesca Ramsey tackles race, pop culture, and other uncomfortable things, in funny and thought-provoking ways.
• Cribs: Building Cribs as a digital-first vertical across platform, with a focus on Food and DIY.
• Cribs (Snapchat): All the bling comes to Snapchat in this short-form reimagining of the classic MTV show where viewers get sneak peeks of celebrities’ houses. The first season (3 episodes) last summer was highest premiere of a Snapchat show ever and will return for a second season with new episodes this summer/fall.
• Cooking in the Crib with Snooki (YouTube): Expanding the Cribs franchise with everyone’s favorite Jersey girl as she brings a whole new flavor to the kitchen.
• Yo! MTV Whips (YouTube): Yo! MTV Whips: Ride shotgun with Nick Cannon as he gets a taste of hip hop’s most insane automobiles in new series “Yo! MTV Whips.”
• Wild Styles (YouTube): “Wild ‘N Out” introduced the world to freestyle comedy and the art of the wild style. The audience craves more rhymes, more fire and more burns, so MTV is delivering new exclusive battles right to their screens.
• Remaking the Video (YouTube): Influencers and talent recreate classic music videos.
• Road to VidCon (YouTube): A multi-part video series premiering in the lead up to this year’s VidCon that documents the journey of a young creator heading to one of the biggest events in his or her life.

Nickelodeon

• The JoJo & BowBow Show Show (YouTube): A girl’s best friend is so much more in this series of animated shorts starring JoJo and her beloved dog BowBow. In each 3-5 minute animated short, JoJo tells a brand-new story that comically reveals how BowBow is way more than just a furry bestie. The character art leverages the existing art style from JoJo’s popular iMessage stickers. Six episodes are being made at Nickelodeon’s Entertainment Lab in the network’s Burbank headquarters.
• SlimeZone VR Showdown (YouTube): A new digital series where you can watch the players go into Nickelodeon’s SlimeZone VR game to compete – and get virtually slimed!
• Nick Trip (YouTube): Fans will follow Jace Norman, star of “Henry Danger,” as he travels throughout Europe with his brother Xander. It’s Jace’s first time in England, Germany and France, so fans will watch as he gets to see the biggest attractions, gets slimed for the first-time ever, meet fans from around the world and hang out with his Nick friends, Kira and Jack, stars of “The Thundermans”.
• Creator Edge Partnership: Creator’s Edge is a hub for internet creators founded by Jace Norman and Xander Norman. We’re teaming up with the brothers and their group of influencer friends to create original content and a number of exciting new digital shows for Nickelodeon.
• Super League Gaming Minecraft City Champs (YouTube): New esports series following Minecraft players as they team up to represent their city in a national tournament. From meeting the competitors to crowning the champion, we’ll follow the action and excitement of this multi-week competition.

About Viacom

Viacom is home to premier global media brands that create compelling entertainment content - including television programs, motion pictures, short-form content, games, consumer products, podcasts, live events and social media experiences - for audiences in 183 countries. Viacom's media networks, including Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., MTV, BET, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, VH1, TV Land, CMT, Logo, Channel 5 (UK), Telefe (Argentina), Colors (India) and Paramount Channel, reach approximately 4.3 billion cumulative television subscribers worldwide. Paramount Pictures is a major global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment. Paramount Television develops, finances and produces original programming for television and digital platforms.

For more information about Viacom and its businesses, visit (www.viacom.com). Keep up with Viacom news by following Viacom's blog at blog.viacom.com and Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/viacom.

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