Albie Hecht, a well-known producer for some Paramount's successes (including Academy Award nominee Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events, the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie), has just gotten a whopping $9 million in a first round of financing for his new entertainment studio company.
Investors in New York's WorldWide Biggies, as it is called, include NBC Universal, Hearst Corporation, Alan Patricof’s Greycroft LLC, Platform Equity and PrismVentureWorks.
It's difficult to count the number of new video studios that have launched recently, with venture capital or other backing. We've mentioned the number of questionable ventures that have arisen lately; we're now well into bubble territory. Beside venture investments, hedge funds and strategic investors (Hearst, NBC) are also stepping up the pace.
[Update: These fundings are happening almost daily: Okapi Venture Capital recently invested an undisclosed amount into www.MyDamnChannel.com, a newly launched video channel featuring comedian/political satirist Harry Shearer (“The Simpsons,” “This is Spinal Tap”), music producer Don Was (The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan), independent comic filmmaker David Wain (“Wet Hot American Summer,” “The Ten”); and Andy Milonakis (“The Andy Milonakis Show,” MTV). Its content is being syndicated to YouTube and will be embeddable in personal Web pages.]
NBC Universal will also partner with the company to provide advertising sales and production support, according to a company statement.
Here's a snippet:
The studio specializes in creating innovative broadband experiences for kids, young adults and families, ranging from community games and webisode series, to a new breed of gaming called gametoons. The company has already produced such successful multi-platform projects as Nickelodeon’s ‘tween rock ‘n roll “mockumentary” mega-hit The Naked Brothers Band which features the top-rated Nickelodeon TV series, web shorts and podcasts. Worldwide Biggies has also created the place for the best dog videos on the web, WorldwideFido.com, and partnered with a leading celebrity news website to launch the innovative online game STARVSSTAR.com, where fantasy sports meets celebrity scandal, coming this August. A slate of webisode series is currently in development in partnership with media entities including iFilm and Spike TV.