Industry | Media |
---|---|
Genre | Business & finance |
Founded | January 2016 |
Founder | Jon Steinberg [1] |
Headquarters | , United States |
Number of locations | 6 (2017) |
Area served | US |
Key people |
|
Services | Streaming media Broadcast networks |
Revenue | $11.3 million [3] (2017) |
Number of employees | 130 [3] |
Parent | Archetype |
Divisions | ChedNet |
Cheddar Business | |
Affiliates | § Over-the-air affiliates |
History | |
Launched | April 2017 |
Availability | |
Cheddar News | |
History | |
Launched | April 2018 |
Website | cheddar |
Cheddar Inc. is an American live streaming financial news network founded by Jon Steinberg in the United States. Cheddar broadcasts live daily from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq, the Flatiron Building in New York City, and the White House lawn and briefing room in Washington, D.C. [2] covering new products, technologies, and services.
Cheddar targets millennials by streaming one to two hours of live content from the NYSE trading floor daily, streaming live audio on iHeartRadio, and distributing the videos on video platforms such as Amazon Prime, the Cheddar app, Facebook Live, Sling TV, Pluto TV, Haystack News and YouTube. It is also available in Canada via RiverTV channel 25. [4]
According to Steinberg, Cheddar received 148 million views in August 2017 across all of its platforms. [5] On Facebook, 60 percent of Cheddar's viewers are under the age of 35. [4] Accordingly, the daily live shows have been described as "quasi-CNBC for millennials". [6]
Reportage focuses on stocks and technology. The channel is ad-free; expected revenue comes from carriage agreements with streaming services. [6] Advertising comprises either program underwriting or semi-weekly brand integration. Brand integration advertising costs $100,000 per year. [7]
Cheddar has two feeds, a paid-for and a free version. The paid feed broadcasts eight hours of programming a day, six of them live, and is available via Amazon Prime, Sling TV, YouTube TV, and the Cheddar app. The free feed broadcasts three hours of new content daily and archived content is available through Facebook and over the air via its affiliated stations. [8] In April 2017, the channel had 100,000 viewers. [1]
On April 30, 2019, it was announced that Cheddar agreed to be bought by the cable company Altice USA for $200 million in cash. [9]
On December 28, 2023 it was announced that Altice USA sold Cheddar to media company Archetype for an undisclosed amount. [10]
Jon Steinberg, formerly president of BuzzFeed and CEO of Daily Mail North America , conceived the concept after leaving the latter in 2015. [4] He considered naming the company "Ticker" until Bustle 's founder, Bryan Goldberg, came up with the name Cheddar. [11]
Steinberg founded Cheddar in early 2016 and hired Peter Gorenstein, a senior producer at Yahoo, as the channel's chief content officer in January 2016. In September 2017, Cheddar hired Anjali Kumar, former Warby Parker executive and Google lawyer, as its first general counsel and chief people officer. [5]
In the company's first financing round in January 2016, it raised nearly $3 million, primarily from Snapchat and Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew, and additional funds from WGI Group, Homebrew, Jerry Speyer, and David Fiszel. [6]
Cheddar began streaming on April 11, 2016, [1] on Facebook Live [4] with one hour of programming at 9:30 am. [11] Cheddar initially streamed all videos for free, but in May 2016, the company launched a subscription video-on-demand service. Smaller clips continue to be released, but full-length videos are exclusive to subscribers. [12] On May 23, 2016, SirusXM began carrying Cheddar. [13]
Cheddar raised $10 million in funding on September 6, 2016, all of which was an equity deal from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Comcast Ventures, and Ribbit Capital. [12] [14] Cheddar used the investments to increase programming and set up a new studio in Santa Monica, California, becoming the company's fifth studio. [15] [16]
The channel teamed with Bustle to launch its afternoon show Extra Sharp on May 18, 2016. [11] Melissa Rosenthal, a former BuzzFeed executive, was hired in May 2016 as creative development and partnership executive. Five half-hour shows (Wheels - automobiles, Points on Point - smart spending, Your Future Home - real estate, Your Cheddar - personal finance, and Cheddar Trading - roundtable discussion on trading) were developed by November 2016, when they were shopped to find underwriting. [7] In September 2016, Twitter made a deal with Cheddar to broadcast its daily coverage, with the stated purpose of giving the Twitter community a platform to watch and discuss the news live. [15]
In January 2017, Vanity Fair's Hive business news and Condé Nast Entertainment partnered with Cheddar to create a live weekly series called VF Hive on Cheddar. Graydon Carter, a Vanity Fair editor, called the series a "representation of how people are consuming more voraciously than ever." [17]
Propagate Content in March 2017 partnered with Cheddar to produce a weekly 45-minute show for international markets. Propagate also became Cheddar's international sales representative. [18] The company purchased StockStream, a Twitch hosted crowd-sourcing investment decision website, from the creator Mike Roberts in July 2017. [13] [19] Also in 2017, Cheddar purchased Need2Know newsletter. [13]
On August 5, 2017, Cheddar opened its second New York studio at the Flatiron Building in Manhattan. The Flatiron studio was built for its Cheddar Life series. [1]
In April 2017, Cheddar began broadcasting on digital UHF stations in five markets and rents the broadcast spectrum from DTV America. Dunkin' Donuts, a Cheddar advertiser, gave free digital antennas at events in the stations' markets to publicize the over the air launch. [8]
Cheddar announced $19 million in its third round of financing in May 2017, which was led by Raine Ventures along with investors: AT&T, Amazon, Altice USA, NYSE, Lorne Michael's Broadway Video, and some existing investors. To date, the company has raised $32.1 million and has a valuation of $85 million as of June 2017. [16] Cheddar also hired Ross Cooperman, former head of engineering at Knowme Systems, as its chief technology officer. [2]
Cheddar partnered with Univision's Fusion Media Group in June 2017 to air two hours on the latter's Fusion TV cable television network every weekday afternoon, with the programming available for cable users on DISH, DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse, Verizon Fios, and Charter Communications. [20] [21] [22] Cheddar reported it was on 60 percent of smart TVs throughout the U.S. [23]
In July 2017, Cheddar partnered with Seeking Alpha to produce an "Idea of the Month" segment. [24] The partnership was extended in early 2018. [25]
KXTV aired segments from Cheddar on July 27, 2017, during its morning and afternoon news programs as a test for a planned rollout throughout the Tegna TV station group. [26] These segments were rolled out by August to seven News 12 Network cable channels, owned by Altice, [27] then to a handful of additional Tegna stations and Tribune's WPIX. [28] These segments are featured under the "Cheddar Local" banner. [29]
On July 27, 2017, the channel was added to the Haystack News news aggregator app, which is on mobile and OTT platforms. [26] In September 2017, Cheddar announced its deal with Layer3 TV, an IP-based MVPD, [30] and planned to open a broadcast studio in the UK by 2018. [5]
Cheddar in January 2017 launched a 24-hour linear feed on Twitch, the gaming and video platform owned by Amazon. [31] [32] Cheddar was one of two news channels on Philo OTT Internet TV MVPD at its November 14, 2017, launch. [33]
In January 2018, Cheddar partnered with MightyHive to extend select client ad campaigns programmatically. [34] In January 2020, TiVo announced the addition of Cheddar to its new channel lineup. [35] [36]
In March 2018, the company announced its plan to expand internationally and launch two channels, Cheddar Big News (CBN) and a channel on Snapchat Discover after securing its fourth investment round, raising $22 million. The funding round was led by Raine Ventures along with Liberty Global, Goldman Sachs, Antenna Group, 7 Global Capital, Dentsu Ventures, Jeffrey Sprecher, and Kelly Loeffler. As of this investment round, the company is valued at $160 million. Big Cheddar News is a general news streaming channel which launched on April 17. [37] The Snapchat Discover channel, also targeted for an April debut, is a general and business news channel. [3]
In April 2018, Cheddar announced its plan to air its live linear network on Hulu. The move comes after Cheddar's deal to bring its news channels to YouTube TV and a month after launching its Snapchat channel. [38] [39] [40]
In May 2018, Cheddar acquired Viacom's MTV Networks on Campus to air CheddarU, which streamed content from its flagship financial-news streaming service and segments from Cheddar Big News to 9 million students on more than 600 campuses. Qualifying universities could receive the service for free. CheddarU was part of the ChedNet division, which focused on installing more screens and broadcasting its service in gyms, hotels, airport lounges, restaurants, bars, among others. [41] [42] In June 2018, Cheddar added another distribution outlet via a carriage deal with virtual MVPD fuboTV, an OTT TV service focused on sports programming. [43] [44] GSTV, Gas Station TV, began running 20 second Cheddar segments in September 2018. [45]
Cheddar bought RateMyProfessors.com and its app in October 2018 from Viacom. [46] The same month, the company announced its programming will air for 30 minutes every weeknight on CUNY TV, the independent station by the City University of New York. [29]
In January 2019, Cheddar renamed their two channels Cheddar Business and Cheddar News and began hiring for a news room. [47] On February 4, 2019, Cheddar launched the "Cheddar Nights" programming block, which airs acquired shows, including game show Out of Tune,Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch and Nathan for You . [48]
On April 30, 2019, Cheddar announced an agreement to be bought by cable company Altice USA for $200 million in cash; the purchase was made to bolster the latter's news output. The acquisition was completed on June 6, with Jon Steinberg becoming Altice News president overseeing Cheddar, News 12 Networks and i24 News. [9] [49]
In December 2023, Altice USA sold Cheddar to the media company Archetype, which is owned by private equity firm Regent LP. [9] [50]
Weather forecasts are provided by The Weather Company through its Local Now brand, as part of a content-sharing agreement between Cheddar and The Weather Company. [53]
From 2017 to 2019, Cheddar had a brokered programming agreement with five stations owned by DTV America Corporation to carry the channel over-the-air. As of May 2019, that agreement has expired. [8] As of 3 June 2020, the network has over 42 stations, [54] all of which are owned by DTV America parent company HC2 Holdings.
ESPN is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications (20%) through the joint venture ESPN Inc. The company was founded in 1979 by Bill Rasmussen, Scott Rasmussen and Ed Eagan.
NBCUniversal Media Group is the television and streaming arm of NBCUniversal, and the direct descendant and successor of the former division NBCUniversal Television Group, which existed from 2004 to 2019.
Altice USA, Inc., commonly known as Altice, is an American telecommunications provider with headquarters in New York City, owned by the Franco-Israeli businessman Patrick Drahi. The company delivers pay television, Internet access, telephone services, and original television content to approximately 4.9 million residential and business customers in 21 U.S. states. Altice USA is based at One Court Square in Long Island City, Queens, New York City. The company's operational center is located at Cablevision's former headquarters in Bethpage, Nassau County, New York, on Long Island. With its combined brands, Altice USA is the fourth-largest cable provider in the U.S., serving customers residing in the New York metropolitan area as well as in several Midwestern and Southern U.S. states.
Bloomberg Television is an American-based pay television network focusing on business and capital market programming, owned by diversified information and media private company Bloomberg L.P. It is distributed globally, reaching over 310 million homes worldwide. It is headquartered in New York City, with European headquarters in London and Asian headquarters in Marina Bay Financial Centre, Singapore and Pacific Place Jakarta, Sudirman Central Business District, Jakarta.
Olympic Channel was an American pay television sports channel owned by the NBC Olympics, a joint venture between NBC Sports and the United States Olympic Committee. It was dedicated to Olympic sports, and was a franchise of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Olympic Channel operation.
The News 12 Networks are a group of regional cable news television channels in the New York metropolitan area that are owned by Altice USA. All channels provide rolling news coverage 24 hours a day, focusing primarily on regions of the metro area outside Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island.
Xumo, LLC is an American internet television and consumer electronics company. It is a joint venture of Charter Communications and Comcast that operates the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) and advertising video on demand (AVOD) service Xumo Play, and develops digital media players and smart TVs. The Xumo Play platform's service operations are based in the Orange County suburb of Irvine, California. As of October 2020, Xumo Play has 24 million monthly active users.
Cable news channels are television networks devoted to television news broadcasts, with the name deriving from the proliferation of such networks during the 1980s with the advent of cable television.
David Zaslav is an American media executive who is the current CEO and president of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Zaslav became CEO and president of Discovery, Inc. in 2006, and focused on the company’s core networks, programming, and expanding its reach into Digital media. Since the merger, Zaslav's new focus for the WBD has been to become more of a "content company" versus "just a cable company". In 2018, Zaslav oversaw Discovery’s acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive, which owned networks such as Food Network, HGTV, and DIY Network, for $14.6 billion. The combined company was renamed Discovery, Inc. Prior to Discovery, Zaslav worked at NBCUniversal where he helped develop and launch the cable channels CNBC and MSNBC.
Fusion TV was an American pay channel owned by Fusion Media Group, a multi-platform media company subsidiary of Univision Communications, which relied in part on the resources of its parent company's news division, Noticias Univision. In addition to conventional television distribution, Fusion was streamed online and on mobile platforms to subscribers of participating cable and satellite providers.
Jon Steinberg is an American businessman, who serves as a chief executive officer of international multimedia company Future plc. In early 2016, he founded Cheddar Inc., a new media company covering tech news and culture, and served as its CEO. He is the former president and COO of tech and pop-culture website BuzzFeed.
CBS News 24/7 is an American streaming video news channel operated by the CBS News and Paramount Streaming divisions of Paramount Global. Launched on November 6, 2014, it features blocks of live, rolling news coverage, original programs, as well as encore airings of CBS News television programs.
Pluto TV is a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service owned and operated by the Paramount Streaming division of Paramount Global.
Tastemade, Inc. is a media company that offers food, travel, and home & design-related programming for online and streaming audiences. Elvina Payne was announced as CFO in June 2024.
Philo is an American internet television company based in San Francisco, California. First founded at Harvard University in 2010 by Tuan Ho and Nicholas Krasney, investors in the company include HBO, Andrew McCollum, and Mark Cuban. The company and its service is named in honor of one of the pioneering engineers of television, Philo T. Farnsworth. As of 2021, their OTT streaming television service has over 800,000 subscribers.
Local Now is an American over-the-top internet television service owned by The Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Entertainment Studios. A spinoff of The Weather Channel, Local Now primarily provides a cyclic playlist of weather, news, sports, entertainment and lifestyle segments, incorporating localized content through feeds geared to a user-specified area.
ACC Network (ACCN) is an American multinational subscription-television channel owned and operated by ESPN Inc. Dedicated to coverage of the Atlantic Coast Conference, it was announced in July 2016 and launched on August 22, 2019. The channel operates from ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut, though some programming and staff is in Charlotte, North Carolina.
MTVU is an American digital cable TV channel owned by the MTV Entertainment Group, a unit of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. The channel was first known as VH1 Uno from 2000 to 2004 before changing names when Viacom expanded MTVU programming beyond more than 750 college and university campuses across the United States, as part of internally originated cable systems that are a part of on-campus housing or college closed-circuit television systems to digital cable in all homes. Music videos played on the channel primarily consist of indie rock, pop punk and hip-hop along with limited original programming. MTVU also launched a short-lived campus guide and social media network called Campusdailyguide.com in 2008.
Optimum is an American telecommunications brand owned and operated by Altice USA. It is the fourth-largest cable provider in the United States and a Fortune 500 company. Optimum offers Internet, television, mobile and home phone services in 21 states.
NBC LX Home is a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) streaming channel and a former American digital subchannel network. The channel is a brand for original home and lifestyle content, originally for the NBCUniversal-owned television stations. LX is short for Local X, with the "X" standing for "exponential". NBC LX Home is a part of the station group's multicast division LXTV, led by senior vice president Meredith McGinn, content strategy vice president Matt Goldberg and managing editor Meagan Harris.