By: Jeremy Barr
The show, called ‘True North’ and hosted by John Iadarola, is a docuseries slated to debut this fall.
The Young Turks Network, riding high on a new $20 million funding round from investors including Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo., is seeking to expand its portfolio of shows. The progressive political outlet will have a 16-episode show run exclusively on the Verizon streaming service go90.
The show, called True North and hosted by John Iadarola, is a docuseries slated to debut this fall “that provides a unique point of view into the impact of global climate change,” says Ivana Kirkbride, go90’s chief content officer. Episodes will be 11 minutes long, the companies say, with shorter clips pegged to the news cycle to air weekly on HuffPost.
Steven Oh, chief business officer at TYT, says the network had the idea for the show and found the right partner in Verizon. “We had a very quick agreement in terms of our shared vision for what the series would look like,” he says.
Verizon launched go90 in October 2015 and, on Aug. 14, brought over CBS veteran Chris Castallo to serve as head of development. Castallo’s charge will be to “help further the streaming service’s premium programming and strengthen their position in the digital entertainment space.”
A sensation on YouTube and among progressives, TYT recently raised its first institutional round of funding led by 3L Capital, along with Greycroft, e.ventures and WndrCo. The network plans to use those funds to create a mobile app, overhaul its website and build up the subscription service that provides much of its revenue (fees start at $10 a month). It has 30,000 subscribers and an estimated $3.6 million in annual subscription revenue.
“We want to be the industry leader in every facet of our business,” says founder Cenk Uygur, who remains the face of the company, “from sales to subscriptions to dominance on OTT platforms and skinny bundles.”
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