MyDamnChannel.com, a site that will play a variety of original video content from established comedians, filmmakers and musicians, launched yesterday on its own site and YouTube.
“We saw the opportunity to bring professional content made by established artists to the web and build a business around it,” said the company’s chief operating officer Warren Chao.
The company is aligning with the artists to produce original programs that will run in weekly installments, like a TV season. Each episode will run from three to five minutes.
Among the first shows to be presented is a political comedy starring Harry Shearer, who plays Vice President Dick Cheney in the first episode. David Wain, a comedian who directs films, has produced a romantic comedy set in Brooklyn. Don Was, a music producer, created two channels, a music documentary series in which he will interview musicians and a channel that will play new music from artists he knows.
There are just a few channels running now, but Chao said many more will be introduced, with the possibility for branded channels that are advertiser related, “as long as the content is entertaining.”
A variety of advertising options will be presented, from pre-rolls and post-rolls to sponsorship deals and product placement opportunities.
The content will be syndicated on YouTube and other web portals, which will be valuable to advertisers, “because we can guarantee millions of impressions,” Chao said.
He distinguished My Damn Channel from YouTube. “We’ll create a dozen episodic shows that will run every week, like an MTV experience on the web.” The episodic nature of the programming is also valuable to advertisers, “because they know the audience will be tuning in every week.”
Chao said the company will sell advertising and work with a few partners, including Middleshift, a consulting firm and some ad networks.
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More