The Future of TV is here for the C-Suite

A new form of entertainment is starting to make headlines, and it’s called over-the-top television. Yesterday, the C-Suite entered into the new frontier with C-Suite TV, a new on-demand and web-based digital broadcast channel featuring premium programming for business leaders, executives, and celebrities. It has been received with great success, and our first episode of Mind Your Own Business is a hit.

Let me get this out of my system. Television is television. No matter where you air it – via broadcast, online or even by DVD!  The “experts’ try to make this too hard.  Just make it and let the audience decide where they want to watch it.  Over the top television or OTT is not a new concept – in fact, you probably use it more than you know. Take Netflix for example. Traditional methods of watching television usually meant tuning into your local channels or through cable. When Netflix came around, you were suddenly able to enjoy movies on your TV without having to pay for cable. All you needed was an Internet connection. That’s OTT at work.

And while I am at it – content can be long or short. It just has to be interesting.  No one has the magic formula on what is the perfect format or length.  So expect to see it all AND it’s all still “television!”

Now, OTT is going to a whole new level. Entire networks are being launched and viewed entirely online, completely doing away with traditional television methods. All you need is access to the Internet and laptop, desktop, or mobile device. Vince McMahon and The WWE Network were the first to really make a splash, and now C-Suite TV online, on-demand, and ready.

OTT is the perfect vehicle to provide content to the C-Suite through. Think about it – the most powerful of those consuming content on the go are those in the C-Suite. When I first began developing the idea for C-Suite TV, companies like Netflix and Hulu were just getting big. But they cater to the masses and have the market saturated. While their business strategy is solid, it wasn’t what I wanted to do. Instead, I looked at the audience I was reaching with my hit show C-Suite with Jeffrey Hayzlett on Bloomberg, which has been receiving anywhere from 45,000 to 50,000 views per day. That’s a huge number – given our target for the franchise is only about 10X those numbers! Then the question was, how could I grow it? By developing content specifically tailored for the C-Suite and putting it online.

And thus, C-Suite TV was born.

There have been challenges of course, the biggest being changing mindsets. We’re so used to broadcast and cable, or that we have to build everything through YouTube. The fact of the matter is, you can build whatever you want! And that’s what we did. Rather than wait for networks or try and gain traction through the thousands of cat videos, we went out and built our own network.

Now, our C-Suite audience is going to become kings and queens of their own content, watching it whenever they want, however they want to. There’s a great amount of value in that, and I am excited to see where C-Suite TV goes. With programming scheduled throughout the summer and plans for new shows coming soon, the future is bright.