By Scott Spangler

Internet media firm Alloy Digital has bought Digital Broadcasting Group, one of the biggest online-video syndication networks, marking its sixth acquisition in past two years.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Companies said deal creates a “powerful digital force,” combining DBG’s video syndication network of 2,600 publishers with Alloy Digital’s digital distribution network and entertainment brands.

Purchase of DBG follows ABS Capital Partners’ $30 million series A investment in New York-based Alloy Digital, joining existing investor ZelnickMedia/ZM Capital.

Since July 2011, Alloy Digital has acquired five content creators, including comedy content creator Smosh; Generate, studio and talent management company; B5 Media, women’s lifestyle digital publishing and media network; Clevver Media, a top YouTube entertainment news provider; and The Escapist, vidgame culture publisher.

“This acquisition instantly creates a powerhouse modern media company, building on a platform agnostic content and distribution model that reflects the rapid pace of change in consumer media consumption,” Alloy Digital topper Matt Diamond said in a statement.

DBG topper and co-founder Chris Young, along with co-founders Rick Kleczkowski and Joseph Gomes, will join Alloy Digital management team, with Young heading marketing as chief marketing officer.

Most of DBG’s approximately 30 employees will join Alloy Digital, which previously had 215 staffers. Combined company will have headcount of about 240, with much of the integration of DBG into Alloy already completed, Diamond said.

Alloy and DBG combined will reach almost 80 million unique viewers monthly across its dedicated video platforms and deliver more than 1.5 billion video streams, according to comScore figures for January 2013.

Companies touted deal as also enhancing Alloy Digital’s content offerings across key demos and existing consumer segments, which currently encompass women’s lifestyle, men’s lifestyle, comedy, entertainment and gaming.  DBG’s assets will provide additional categories such as sports, tech, health and travel, as well as extend its market reach beyond Alloy’s core 12-34 aud.

By Paul Bond

The combined company is expected to reach 80 million unique viewers each month.

By Matthew Flamm

Alloy Digital, owner of popular youth-market properties Teen.com, Smosh and Clevver Media, is growing up. On Wednesday, the company announced that it was expanding beyond its 12-to-34-year-old Web audience with the purchase of Digital Broadcasting Group.

Primarily an online video distribution company, with proprietary video players that carry syndicated content across some 2,600 sites, DBG also produces webisodic programming for the 18-to-49-year-old crowd. Among its better known productions was the 2011 thriller The Confession, which starred Kiefer Sutherland.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Both companies are based in Manhattan.

The deal comes two weeks before the Digital Content NewFronts, which will kick off on April 29 and give Web channels and producers the chance to promote their programming to the advertising community. Alloy Digital will present eight new productions at the event.

Alloy can now add the sports, tech, health and travel categories to a range of offerings that was previously focused on comedy, entertainment, gaming and men's and women's lifestyle. The DBG network also adds an audience of 71 million unique visitors to Alloy's 24 million, according to comScore VideoMetrix.

"The Alloy portfolio contains strength in its owned-and-operated websites," said Alloy Digital CEO Matt Diamond in an interview. "DBG's unique strength is in video syndication—taking video and getting it out en masse. So now we've greatly enhanced the video side of the equation."

Once the sister company of Gossip Girls creator Alloy Entertainment, which is now part of Warner Bros. Television, 16-year-old Alloy has bought five content companies in the past two years. They include Smosh, which the company describes as the No. 1 subscribed YouTube channel in the world. Recently, ABS Capital Partners made a Series A investment of $30 million in Alloy.

Mr. Diamond believes Alloy can now offer advertisers the 18-to-49-year old audience that is becoming increasingly hard to find on television as the audience for broadcast and cable shows skews older. Executives at both Alloy and DBG see their combined company as the new media version of a traditional TV network.

"It's very analogous to a Viacom of yesterday," said Chris Young, CEO and co-founder of DBG, who will now become chief marketing officer of Alloy Digital. "We're a next generation media shop."

Correction: The Digital Content NewFronts begin on April 29, 2013. Alloy Digital will present eight new productions at the event. ComScore VideoMetrix tracks traffic for DBG and Alloy. These facts were misstated in an earlier version of this article, published online April 17, 2013.

By Joe Flint

Alloy Digital has a new ally.

By Peter Kafka

Last month Web video network Alloy Digital raised $30 million. Maybe this is where some of that is going: Alloy has acquired rival DBG.

The move will give the combined company a reach of 80 million, says Alloy CEO Matt Diamond. DBG co-founder and CEO Chris Young will come aboard as Alloy’s new chief marketing officer.Videoink covered the story earlier.

Both companies make most of their money connecting advertisers, video owners and video watchers, but both companies have also been taking stabs at creating and/or owning video content themselves. Alloy, for instance, now owns YouTube sensation Smosh; and two years ago DBG footed the bill for “The Confession,” a “24”-like Web series starring Kiefer Sutherland.

By Mike Shields

Alloy Digital has acquired the video ad network Digital Broadcasting Group. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The deal puts two of the larger Web video distribution and production firms together in one place. DBG has shepherded Web series such as the Kiefer Sutherland-starring The Confession while also help syndicating originals like The LeBrons.

Meanwhile, Alloy has amassed a sizable collection of digital assets, including Smosh, one of the biggest content producers on YouTube; Generate, a Los Angeles based production and talent firm; and the female-focused publishing company B5 Media.

According to Alloy digital CEO Matt Diamond, there was very little overlap between DBG and Alloy's vast networks. "It was really a complementary fit," he said.

On its own, DBG works with 2,600 Web publishers reaching 80 million unique users, per officials. The company recently took on $30 million in funding.

Alloy plans to fold DBG's business inside its growing portfolio. Going forward, DBG CEO Chris Young will serve as Alloy’s chief marketing officer.

NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES — March 11, 2013 — Digital Broadcasting Group (DBG), the leading creator, producer and distributor of premium¬ video content across digital media, today announced Dropping the Soap, an original comedy web series executive produced by Emmy Award-winning actor and Glee star Jane Lynch, Friends alum and Web Therapy co-creators Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky, award-winning screenwriter Don Roos (Marley & Me, Single White Female) and Damon Bethel and Joseph Gomes of DBG. The episodic 10-part series will be distributed by DBG across the web in 2013.

Dropping the Soap goes behind-the-scenes of a daytime soap opera struggling to survive in the new era of television. When Olivia Vanderstein, the new Head of the Network played by Jane Lynch, wants to shake things up on the long-running soap opera Colliding Lives, she tries every gimmick in the book. The result is a no-holds barred, every-hack-for-himself, fight for survival led by Julian Drake, the soap’s leading star of questionable talent and moral compass, played by Paul Witten.

“As the TV soap opera itself circles the drain, I love how our crew of self-centered and desperate actors charge ever forward to save their show from the chopping block,” said Lynch. “The writing is so sharp and witty as the off-screen shenanigans become almost more absurd than the storylines of Colliding Lives. Simply put, it is pure joy working with this group of hilarious and smart people.”

Co-creators and talent in Dropping the Soap include Paul Witten (Desperate Housewives, Chuck), Mandy Fabian (30 Rock, Upright Citizens Brigade) and Kate Mines (Grey’s Anatomy, The Hurt Locker).
“I was immediately drawn to the project,” said Bucatinsky. “The series has this wonderfully creative, soap-within-a-soap concept, which, in my mind, lends itself so well to clever, self-referential brand integrations—like a blatant, soap-opera-style product placement written right into the storyline. I’m psyched to be able to usher this project to a wider audience and be a part of such a hilarious cast and creative team.”

“Wow, Dan said it all! I'm excited because I think it's funny,” said Kudrow.

“At DBG, we’ve seen the web mature into a true platform for high-quality, original entertainment programming, and Dropping the Soap is proof positive,” said Chris Young, CEO of DBG. “Here you’ve got a level of creators, producers and comedic talent not often seen in online video—a recipe for success for any advertiser looking for smart ways to reach web audiences.”

Dropping the Soap is the latest star-studded program executive produced by Digital Broadcasting Group. Previous DBG programs include the live-streamed reality TV experiment ControlTV, produced by Seth Green and the Webby Award-winning online drama The Confession, starring Kiefer Sutherland and John Hurt.

About DBG

Digital Broadcasting Group (DBG; www.dbg.tv) is the leading creator, producer, and distributor of premium video content across digital media. DBG’s Emmy Award winning in-house production team has created compelling original programming for such blue-chip brands as Infiniti, Hewlett Packard, Ford, Sprint, Mars, the U.S. Air Force, Kimberly Clark, Unilever, and Coca-Cola as well as co-produced and distributed of The Confession, the groundbreaking action/drama starring Golden Globe® and Emmy® award-winning actor Kiefer Sutherland and two-time Academy Award® nominee John Hurt. Through its comScore rated top 5 video syndication capabilities, comprised of close to 107 million monthly unique visitors, DBG distributes advertisers’ pre-roll inventory as well as original web programming across 2,600 publishers. DBG, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Dallas, was launched in 2007 by online video advertising pioneer Chris Young, former VH1 producer Joseph Gomes, Emmy Award-winning producer Gregg Backer, and digital media veteran Rick Kleczkowski.

Press Contacts:

Kayla Zerby
The Morris + King Company for DBG
(212) 561-7454
kayla.zerby@morris-king.com

Gabrielle Krengel
Domain Talent for Jane Lynch
(310) 888-8500
gabrielle@domainla.org

Jennifer Allen
Viewpoint for Lisa Kudrow
(310) 388-3333
jennifer.allen@viewpointla.com

Raina Seides
B|W|R Public Relations for Dan Bucatinsky
(310) 248-6184
RSeides@bwr-LA.com

The creative team behind web-to-Showtime series “Web Therapy” is prepping the launch of digital series “Dropping the Soap,” with Lisa Kudrow and Jane Lynch serving as exec producers and Lynch starring.

Comedy from Digital Broadcasting Group is toplined by Lynch and Paul Witten and goes behind-the-scenes of faux daytime sudser “Colliding Lives” as the program struggles to stay afloat in the new era of TV. Mandy Fabian and Kate Mines are also part of the cast, and the series will debut online this spring.

Lynch, who herself is a fan of digital programming like Netflix’s “House of Cards” and Ken Marino’s “Burning Love,”  dubbed the production process for “Dropping the Soap” akin to “guerrilla TV making.”

“Nobody made any money on this thing,” said Lynch about the creative team. “You don’t do it unless it’s fun. … It harkens back to the old days, and you’re doing it for the joy of creating something. The smaller the budget, the more people seem to be committed because you invest so much of yourself. It’s not about a paycheck.”

For the full article, click here.

Predictions are always a tricky thing. In the past couple years it's been easy. There were gaping holes in video advertising as compared to other forms, but last year saw many of them closed. With 2013 now here the question is, what will the new year bring with it? I spoke to a couple industry leaders about just that and have a few thoughts of my own on it.
Because of the cost of both video production and video advertising I think the main drive to continued expansion will have to be better real-time data. Without being able to quickly see the trends and react to them it's hard to hit the highest ROI possible. I think we'll see a refining process or perhaps a fine-tuning process in the information that is being provided to the ad buyer. Many of the metrics that we have are based on older forms of advertising and aren't exactly the best they can be. Views are subjective, iGRP is still in its infancy, etc. As all of these metrics mature we will eventually see a 'perfect fit' which combines several of these major metrics to give ad buyers a quick idea of how well their campaigns are performing.

For the full article, click here

Over the past five years, I’ve heard no less than five different labels used to describe the creation of brand-funded original web programming. I’ve also been guilty of using them all -- from “branded content” to “branded entertainment” to “original programming” to “web originals” to yes, such terms as “infotainment”, “edutainment”, “utilitainment” or the latest to find its way into the ever-expanding vocabulary, the “social film”. It’s simple enough to guess what each of these labels proposes to deliver; the hard part is finding which ones matter to you and which ones deserve your attention. When will the “I Love Lucy” moment occur? When will a significant audience fall in love with a web series as it once fell for television? It’s an apt description, as that series smartly leveraged technology and audience interaction to break through the clutter. It was television’s first scripted television program shot on 35 mm film in front of a live studio audience, vividly transporting Lucy and Ricky through the screen and into our homes. The web provides a similar transcendent opportunity, as never before has there been a medium in which an audience can invest and immerse themselves so fully into the content. Beyond real time commenting and social sharing, consumers are increasingly provided the opportunity to become part of the show’s creative arc. The breakthrough then is as much about the technology and opportunity as it is the actual show, whose existence is merely a matter of time.

For the full article, click here