DramaFever Completes $6 Million Round with Backing from Global Media Giants
AMC Networks, Bertelsmann, and NALA Investments make strategic investments in America’s fast-growing international online video platform
New York, NY(11 Jun 2012)
DramaFever, an online video platform for the world’s best entertainment available on the web, has completed a six million dollar funding round with backing from media giants responsible for some of the world’s most popular television shows and blockbuster hits today. AMC Networks, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, and NALA Investments, an investment vehicle of the family that founded Univision and Televisa, have made strategic investments in the fast-growing startup. Co-founder and CEO of Machinima Allen DeBevoise and LowerMyBills.com founder and CEO Matt Coffin also joined the round.
In addition, Sandy Grushow, the former chairman of Fox Television Entertainment Group is joining the company as a strategic advisor. Grushow will work closely with co-founder Seung Bak on branding, marketing, and distribution development across linear TV and the web. With major moves toward global growth planned for this year, the company expects to leverage the new relationships to further accelerate production underway of offerings across the global entertainment platform, starting with Latin American content, Asian pop music video programming, and Bollywood film.
This is subsequent to the $4.5 million Series B investment that DramaFever received in mid-March 2012, led by venture capital firm MK Capital and including YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, Badoo COO Benjamin Ling, and Stubhub founder Jeff Fluhr. GraphEffect president Stephano Kim, Wikets CEO Andy Park, and Capital IQ co-founders Randy Winn and Steve Turner also participated. To date, DramaFever has raised $7.8 million since its launch in August 2009.
“We’re fortunate to have attracted such a strong, diverse group of investors comprised of media powerhouses and individuals regarded as those on the cutting-edge of online video” says co-founder Seung Bak. “DramaFever is enabling foreign content creators to cross borders and more easily identify new North American markets for their programming where consumer interest is strong and more likely to add revenue, and it’s not hard to imagine what’s coming soon,” he adds.
Bak says global content deals are becoming more central to growth for media companies in their quest to reach new audiences and expand non-traditional revenue streams. He believes DramaFever’s international relationships and developing expertise in global distribution strategy makes it an ideal partner for these media giants, who have each had diverse and blockbuster success in identifying what resonates in a lasting way with broad audiences. DramaFever has already become the largest source of international online revenues for many of its content partners. The company hopes to make major news announcements in the second half of 2012 and early 2013 on both the internationalization and technological fronts.
Currently, the company reports two million unique advertising-supported monthly visitors, having added an additional half million viewers since mid-March. Seventy-five percent of current DramaFever viewers are native English-speakers of non-Asian descent, underscoring the broadening appeal of foreign content, which has historically been attractive to art house and independent film fans. Traffic is doubling every six to eight months and is up 400% since early 2011.
DramaFever is available for free on the web at www.dramafever.com. Premium membership starts at $9.99 per month with package discounts available and offers users access to advertising-free high-definition videos, mobile and Web TV access.
ABOUT DRAMAFEVER
DramaFever, an online video platform for the world’s best entertainment available on the web, is based in New York City. Currently,DramaFever strikes deals with networks and production companies from around the world to bring online audiences the most popular, mainstream entertainment, including TV shows, movies, and music, in high-quality and fully-translated into English by native-language speaking professionals. DramaFever has over two million US and Canadian users who on average spend over three hours a month watching videos on the site. Over 75% of DramaFever users watching Asian entertainment are native English-speakers of non-Asian descent. Partners include Hulu and over 60 content partners from the most popular networks and producers in seven countries.DramaFever’s ever-expanding library of hit television and music shows, teleseyres, short and full-length feature films is one of the most comprehensive and current collections of legal Asian content available to US consumers. To learn more, visit www.DramaFever.com.