YouTube Red‘s holiday special The Keys of Christmas is an example of how digital TV is pushing linear to up its game, says Justin Hochberg, CEO of Just Entertainment Studios, who created and produced the show in partnership with Endemol Shine North America – and says it’s a production that would make Santa proud.
Cynopsis: How can digital content help “save” traditional TV?
Justin Hochberg: Many buyers in the TV business seem anxious today. In many ways the buzz has moved from cable to OTT platforms. Smaller networks that used to succeed with “long tail” viewers are either rumored for extinction or to become just straight digital. This is seemingly a real problem for linear TV. However, I think it’s a great opportunity if you place it in the context of how cable seemingly threatened broadcast TV over last 10 or 15 years. If you look at the market from that historical context, what you’ll see is competition creates better programming. Amidst the onslaught of great cable programming racking up Emmys, that lead to the birth of even better network programming that also now airs all year long (and not just the traditional September to May). When something is a hit from a “challenger brand” like YouTube Red, it gives permission for other people to take risks. Today OTT platforms are taking bigger risks than anyone. They’re broadcasting globally simultaneously and they’re doing it in faster development cycles. Our show, The Keys of Christmas, premiering on YouTube Red tonight is a prime example of this. It’s ambitious. It’s packed with over 20 amazing talent – combining traditional performers with YouTube personalities and we pulled it off in less than six weeks in multiple cities and two continents. What this means for “trying to save TV” is that we’re pushing boundaries and as a result other buyers look to that and see hope. They see the possibility that they can move at that speed and that ambition and it’s having a trickle down effect. To paraphrase another great story, what you’re seeing now “is the circle of TV life.” Content is king and it always will be. And it’s never been better or more exciting to be a producer and creator.
Cynopsis: How can you work with talent to reach and engage viewers?
Hochberg: Talent has always been essential if not the absolute most fundamental part of delivering great content. What’s changed between linear TV and OTT platforms is that talent is now not only on screen but comes with its own personal subscriber base. Rudy Mancuso is a star and multi-hyphenate. He acts, he sings and he writes his own music. I’m not sure if there’s anything Rudy can’t do. What puts him in another category and makes him powerful is his subscribers the followers he’s engaged with every single day. Not just when he has a big event, but literally every day. And that is the fundamental shift and reason why YouTube Red is an unbelievable platform unique among every other outlet. So when we conceived of this show we thought how do we combine amazing traditional talent like Mariah, Ciara, DJ Khaled and Fifth Harmony with performers like Jimmy Jamz, Boyce Avenue and Rudy. And by giving the audience that we are offering something they can’t see anywhere else. Tonight’s show is a unique mash up that we think creates something magical that even Santa Claus would be proud of. And by the way don’t think we didn’t try to get him on this show too because he’s got a heck of a subscriber base.
Cynopsis: How do you employ/create cross-over talent?
Hochberg: Crossover talent is a very hot topic. Talk to 10 buyers and agents and you’ll get 11 different answers. Again, one can look for an answer in the past creative disruptions. Every medium requires a unique skill. For example not every movie actor can be at TV actor or stage actor and vice versa. It’s the same for digital personalities. Some personalities and stories are best for seven seconds or seven minutes. It takes a totally different skill to carry a full one hour scripted show like Rudy did. I also think it takes an amazing director to bring talent into this world and Dave Meyers did just that. His vision and expertise at creating memorable moments that are visually stimulating is second to none. So how do you create crossover talent? You find people who have that extra something in them and surround them with Dave Meyers (and if he’s not free try Spielberg).
Cynopsis: Now for the big question: What’s it like working with Mariah Carey?
Hochberg: Let me just say creating this show with Mariah Carey, everyone knows she’s beyond talented, but she’s also a great executive producer. Without her and her partner, Stella Bulochnikov, we could not have attracted the list of amazing talent we did for The Keys of Christmas. The Queen of Christmas, like Santa, always delivers! I also want to point out on a related topic that Cris Abrego, Endemol Shine North America’s CEO, supported my quest to get this show made more than anyone. There were many reasons to give up on this along the way, but he helped me “find the yes in every no.”
Cynopsis: How does producing digital content differ from traditional TV?
Hochberg: Creating a show like The Keys of Christmas for YouTube Red is very different in some ways from linear TV and also the same. It’s different because the speed at which OTT buyers move is immediate. Everyone knows for regular YouTube you put a video up and you see instantaneously whether someone likes it or not and that DNA filters directly to the creative executives and producers of their premium shows. Before I produced TV shows I worked for five years at Microsoft in their digital content division and can say definitively the tech culture is all about empowering people to do their best and believing in them with as little oversight as possible. Susanne Daniels and Ben Relles at YouTube Red and Bonnie Pan at Endemol Shine Beyond USA are the embodiment of this. Without them we could not have moved at this pace and this ambition. Producing digital content is also similar to linear programming in as much as the standards are as high and the expectations are as great. People used to think digital content meant homemade content. Now with premium shows like the The Keys of Christmas, and other great programs on other steaming platforms, it now means you can watch amazing content on your own personal schedule. Speaking of which, at this point I’d like you to STOP reading because the best answer isn’t in anything I can say but rather in the show we made, so click to watch: https://www.youtube.com/red.
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