Expansion to Focus on Premium Content Production, Brand/Influencer Partnerships, Global Monetization
Following last year’s merger, ProSiebenSat.1 Group, one of the largest independent media corporations in Europe, announced today that Collective Digital Studio (CDS), is rebranding as Studio71 so the company can operate under one unified global banner. The combined Studio71 entity has gone from generating 1.2 billion views per month to 3.5 billion views per month and is on track to continue that growth rate in 2016.
The name change comes at a pivotal time for CDS, which represents one of the most impressive rosters of talent across YouTube, Vine, Snapchat, Instagram and Periscope, and has a very ambitious premium content slate planned for 2016 in addition to continued growth in brand/influencer partnerships. In 2015, CDS conceived of, produced and executed more than 1500 pieces of branded content with top influencers and channels, including Top 10 Viner Logan Paul, millennials’ favorite daily morning talk show, Good Mythical Morning, and Top 10 Snapchatters Shonduras, for more than 500 campaigns, which generated over 1 billion views for advertisers.
Studio71 will continue to be jointly managed by a company board of five executives chaired by Christof Wahl (ProSiebenSat.1). Sebastian Weil and Ronald Horstman (Founders of Studio71) will focus on their core market in Europe with offices in Berlin and Vienna as well as Studio71’s new office in London with responsibilities for UK. CDS founders Michael Green and Reza Izad will remain responsible for the Americas and additional English-speaking territories.
Christof Wahl, Managing Director ProSiebenSat.1 Digital and responsible for Digital Entertainment, said, “With the merger we instantly became a global player, now we are focused on dynamic growth so operating together under the Studio71 banner will make us even more impactful.”
“Our stellar growth in 2015 is due in no small part to ProSiebenSat.1, which is one of the world’s most forward-thinking media corporations,” said Green, Studio71 Board Member. “We are poised for even greater growth in 2016. Our continued focus on the world’s best talent, production of premium content and partnership with leading brands is contributing to a powerhouse slate of intellectual property, which we will be producing and distributing over multiple platforms around the world.”
Studio71’s first global production will be the film Natural Born Pranksters—starring YouTube’s top pranksters VitalyzdTV, Roman Atwood and Dennis Roady, who collectively have more than 27 million subscribers and over three billion views—which will be released this spring by Lionsgate. Additional upcoming projects include Maximum Ride, the massively popular Young Adult fantasy franchise from one of the world’s best-selling authors, James Patterson; and a feature film starring 18 year-old actor and social media phenomenon Matthew Espinosa, who has more than 16 million followers on social media with more than 1 billion loops/views on Vine. All three films will all be released under the Studio71 banner.
CDS’ work has also included innovative branded content campaigns with their network’s biggest influencers, including multi-talented comedic entertainer Lilly Singh a.k.a. IISuperwomanII, Harley Morenstein’s Epic Meal Time and Rhett and Link for major brands including Aeropostale, Coca-Cola, Dunkin Donuts, Estee Lauder, Nissan, Wendy’s and Verizon.
About Studio71
Studio71 is the multichannel network of the ProSiebenSat.1 Group. It is headquartered in Berlin and Los Angeles, with offices in New York, Detroit, San Francisco, Toronto, London and Vienna. In German-speaking countries, Studio71 is the leading multichannel network that concentrates the broadcasting group’s range of Web-only content and its distribution through in-house platforms like MyVideo and through third-party platforms. In the U.S., Studio71 develops, produces and distributes original entertainment programming and manages one of the leading multichannel networks with over 1200 channels. Germany’s leading moving-image marketer is responsible for ad marketing with SevenOne Media.