Ellation Announces VRV, a Multichannel Video Platform Built for a Community of Fans Who Love Anime, Animation, Gaming, Comedy, Fantasy, and Technology
Available later in 2016, initial channels will include Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, Seeso, Nerdist Alpha, Geek & Sundry Alpha, and Cartoon Hangover
San Francisco, CA (14 Jun 2016)
odayEllation announced VRV, a new video experience bringing the best of anime, animation, gaming, comedy, fantasy, and technology to fans in one unified environment. Available later in 2016, VRV will feature hand-picked premium channels for members of the fandom. First of the announced offerings are Ellation’s own Crunchyroll, along with partner channels Rooster Teeth, Seeso, Nerdist Alpha, and Geek & Sundry Alpha. Frederator’s premium Cartoon Hangover offering will be exclusively available via the VRV platform. These partners will bring premium content to VRV including Naruto Shippuden, Bravest Warriors, Day 5, RWBY, Crunch Time, and all new programming to come. Additional premium channels will be announced in the coming months.
VRV viewers will have the option to subscribe to the full, premium offerings á la carte or to a bundle of select channels at a greater value. Each channel will also offer free, ad-supported content. VRV will be available initially in the US on mobile and living room devices with customizable watchlists for audiences to access their desired shows wherever and whenever they want.
“VRV was created to unite passionate fans around the content they love,” says Tom Pickett, CEO of Ellation. “VRV will be a home where you can discover new channels to love, interact with fellow fans, and engage with creators on a deeper level, especially as we begin to roll out new features for our community. Premium channels like Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, and the comedy streaming channel Seeso are working hard to bring new and improved programming to their communities. While each of the audiences are unique, they have a significant amount of overlapping interests.”
“Frederator is excited to bring the premium version of Cartoon Hangover exclusively to VRV. Crunchyroll is the most successful animation subscription video service. Many of Cartoon Hangover fans are Crunchyroll subscribers and anime fans (as are our creators and a number of our employees),” says Fred Seibert, CEO Frederator Networks, Inc. “We have admired RoosterTeeth's phenomenal ability to connect with their fans. When Tom Pickett came to us with this VRV opportunity, it became the ideal place to showcase Cartoon Hangover, especially our shows Bravest Warriors and Bee and PuppyCat.”
“Nerdist and Geek & Sundry succeed by bringing passionate fans together around the things that they love the most. VRV is poised to be an epicenter of great, authentic content tailored for our audience, and we’re excited to join together in creating a new experience that will live across multiple platforms,” says Adam Rymer, President of Legendary Digital Networks. LDN is the parent company of Nerdist and Geek & Sundry whose new Alpha versions of those channels will be available on VRV.
“VRV's platform is a great opportunity to attract a bigger audience and provide our fans, especially our valuable Sponsors, with more choice for how they want to watch Rooster Teeth shows,” says Matt Hullum, CEO of Rooster Teeth. “Our community has been asking for a great living room experience, and VRV is going to give them that alongside other great entertainers that we really enjoy and respect.”
The announcement was made live at E3 during the Xbox Daily Show. Burnie Burns, CCO of Rooster Teeth, Kun Gao, Co-Founder of Crunchyroll, and Jessica Chobot, Host of Nerdist News and Bizarre States, joined together on stage to provide E3 viewers a first look at VRV and show fans exclusive content from upcoming shows. A full video of the Xbox Daily Show can be found at Xbox.com/E3. Microsoft will serve as a key partner, with VRV available on Xbox One at launch. More device partners will be announced in the future.
To stay up-to-date with the latest VRV announcements register at VRV.co.
About Ellation:
Ellation is a leading OTT video business positioned at the forefront of the direct-to-consumer, over-the-top premium subscription model that is transforming the media industry. With brands such as Crunchyroll, Creativebug, and VRV, Ellation strives to transform the media landscape by building premium video experiences for passionate fans and providing sustainable business models for content creators. Ellation’s major funding comes from Otter Media, a joint venture between The Chernin Group and AT&T. Ellation is based in San Francisco, CA.
About Alpha:
Alpha is the new premium content platform from Legendary Digital Networks that allows fans to interact with feature channels and personalities in order to form immersive communities around their passions. Alpha's fully interactive channels include Nerdist Alpha, which features exclusive content from the genre and popular culture experts at Chris Hardwick's Nerdist as well as Geek & Sundry Alpha offering specially curated content from the award-winning geek culture and lifestyle authorities at Felicia Day's Geek & Sundry. Alpha bridges the gap between the audience and content through special features including original programming, chat, polling, and live fan experiences.
About Frederator Networks, Inc.:
Frederator Networks is Channel Frederator, the world’s largest animation network, Frederator Studios, the most successful independent cartoon production company of the past 20 years, with hits on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon (Adventure Time and The Fairly OddParents), Cartoon Hangover, the home of original programming like Bravest Warriors, Bee and PuppyCat (the biggest animation Kickstarter), and 107 Facts. And, channels such as The Leaderboard, Cinetmatica, Fredbot, Super Coin Crew as well as Átomo Network, the world’s first Hispanic animation network, a joint venture with Ánima Estudios in Mexico City.
About Rooster Teeth:
Rooster Teeth is a pioneering studio responsible for some of the biggest online series in history, such as the award-winning and longest-running web series, Red vs. Blue. They also produce the globally acclaimed animated series RWBY, the first western anime series to be distributed to Japan; the award-winning Rooster Teeth Podcast; and Immersion, a reality format that brings video game theory to the real world. Rooster Teeth has a massive global footprint of more than 26.5 million subscribers to its YouTube Network, 3 million unique monthly visitors to its RoosterTeeth.com hub and 1.8 million registered community members. The company was founded in 2003, and is now a subsidiary of Fullscreen, Inc., a global youth media company that develops online creators and produces multi-platform entertainment experiences. Discover more at RoosterTeeth.com.
About Seeso:
Seeso is the new, ad-free streaming comedy channel from NBCUniversal’s Digital Enterprises. The channel gives comedy viewers access to over 2,000 hours of original programming, with new, original content rolling out daily. Viewers are able to access the curated library for $3.99 a month via www.seeso.com, iOS, Android, Chromecast, Roku, XBox, Amazon Fire TV and Fire Stick as well as Amazon Instant Video.