Television doctor Mehmet Oz is a partner in a new venture announced Monday that will attempt to give immigrants online access to popular television programs from their home countries.
The service, called JungoTV, will launch in September with some 18,000 hours of programming. It will target Arabic, Chinese, Filipino, Greek, Iranian, Italian, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese communities. For $14.99 a month, subscribers will get an app that provides access to entertainment programs, not news or sports.
"I'm still startled by how often immigrants aren't able to access their cultural stories, the stories they grew up with," the star of TV's "Dr. Oz" show said. He is partners with Sandy Climan of Entertainment Media Ventures and George Chung, who had a company that brought Vietnamese programming to the United States.
Oz and his partners aren't the first media executives to see potential profit in the idea, but hope that the online app will catch on as a different approach.
The son of Turkish immigrants, Oz said he recognized how his parents often missed the cultural attachment to their home countries. The practicing heart surgeon and talk-show host said the venture also represents a growing interest in the business of media.
