ON Networks joins the crowded online TV market
ON Networks, a yet another media company offering online high-definition TV programming, said it has raised $12 million in a second round of financing.
The Austin, Tex. company raised the money from Accel Partners, the Silicon Valley firm that backed Facebook, along with Austin Ventures and AT&T, who led the company’s second round of $4 million in November.
There is an increasing number of these companies, none boasting anything particularly new in terms of technology, but all trying to exploit the transition by people to watch more content online. As mentioned, every Silicon Valley firm appears to want to get behind this trend: In the same genre are companies like National Banana, Funny or Die, Rockin Cat (see coverage), Crackle (see coverage), DECA, Next New Networks (see coverage), Revision3 — the list goes on.
The company is building a “virtual studio” to product new shows, and also forging relationships with networks to distribute the shows. How it plans to build a new media company from Austin is another question (Austin is a very cool town, but it’s not New York or Hollywood, where most of the competition is).
It says it has 25 shows (with more than 400 episodes so far), including Play Value, The 5-Minute Drill, BackPack Picnic, Budget Health Nut, Cocktails on the Fly, Golf Tips, and Stump the Chef.
Next Story: Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007
Previous Story: Exclusive: Barack Obama to name a "Chief Technology Officer"
About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
