For his next move, David Letterman is jumping in to the increasingly crowded free, ad-support TV channel (FAST) space.
The late-night great’s production company Worldwide Pants has inked a deal with Samsung TV Plus to bring around 4,000 hours of original video to the company’s streaming service, the firms said Wednesday. “I’m very excited about this,” stated Letterman, who glibly added, “Now I can watch myself age without looking in the mirror!”
The output for the 24/7 on-demand channel titled Letterman TV appears to rely heavily on archival clips from his nearly 33-year run at NBC and CBS with Late Night and The Late Show, including his Top Ten lists, “Stupid Tricks” segments, interviews with stars, holiday specials and behind-the-scenes clips along with fresh commentary from Letterman, presumably on all the above.
“Dave’s show was the original viral video,” said Walter Kim, exec producer for digital at Worldwide Pants. “As someone who worked for the entirety of The Late Show, it’s a thrill to help assemble and create programming around some of our favorite moments from the show, and with more than 4,000 hours from which to choose, the channel will continuously change.”
The deal marks the latest for Samsung TV Plus, the streaming ecosystem that arrives pre-installed on the South Korean tech giant’s TV sets. In a late October signal to Hollywood and its investors, the company disclosed for the first time the scale of its streaming offerings, touting that it’s as big as some of the major players.
Samsung said its FAST service now has 88 million monthly active users and touts “over 50 percent increase in global viewership” year-to-year as it aims to scale up its advertising efforts in the connected TV space. But, by one measure, the service may also be trailing rivals like Roku, Tubi and Pluto TV, which all appeared on Nielsen’s latest Gauge monthly tracker that tallies TV use in streaming and on linear devices.
“At Samsung TV Plus, we aim to build a home for entertainment that feels personal, meaningful, and accessible to everyone,” added Salek Brodsky, svp and general manager at Samsung TV Plus. “David Letterman is a living legend whose humor and conversations have entertained and inspired generations. With ‘Letterman TV,’ we’re proud to bring his iconic interviews and comedy to a new audience while giving longtime fans a chance to revisit and enjoy the moments that make him such a beloved figure in television.”
Read the full article here
