NEW YORK, July 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IAC today announced the launch of Notional, a video content company born out of its entertainment property CollegeHumor.com. CollegeHumor's original videos have been viewed over 300 million times and its viewers watch 100 years worth of video content each month. Building on this successful foundation the new production company will create programming of all genres for all demographics, to be distributed across multiple media platforms, including television. Notional will be headed by Ricky Van Veen, who will transition from his current role as Editor-in-Chief of CollegeHumor.
The new endeavor was conceived as an extension of CollegeHumor.com's industry-leading content sensibility and production capabilities. By building on top of that base, Notional hopes to bring the DNA of an internet company to an international production company. But unlike CollegeHumor's young male-focused audience, Notional's content will appeal to a much broader base. "We're trying to take what we've mastered online - the ability to create attention-getting pieces of content at a low price - to other people and platforms," said Van Veen.
Notional also aims to use its online expertise to develop programming that bridges the TV and online worlds, as opposed to simply repurposing TV content for the web. The company will also build upon and amplify CollegeHumor's recent successful foray into creating content for brands.
"IAC is a company with its roots in the entertainment business," said Van Veen. "From Barry Diller's days at Paramount and IAC's early involvement in Reveille to CollegeHumor's ten weekly original videos and the growing editorial voice of The Daily Beast, IAC has, in one way or another, had a hand in content creation since its founding."
Notional's initial focus will be high-concept, buzzy, unscripted programming. Notional's President of Television, Dave Noll, comes from City Lights Media, where he created the company's TV division and produced over 800 episodes of television and 1200 episodes of digital content. Van Veen and Noll have a long relationship in the entertainment business, dating back to 2001 when Noll produced a CollegeHumor prank show for a national college TV network. Noll and his six-person development team are already in the process of creating dozens of new formats and show ideas.
"My team and I are thrilled to join the IAC and CollegeHumor families," said Noll. "Through wildly creative ideas, we're looking to bridge the current gap between the web and TV content spaces in a fresh and meaningful way."
Van Veen's fellow CollegeHumor co-founder Josh Abramson will remain at CollegeHumor and oversee its operations, as well as those of other CollegeHumor Media sites.
About IAC
IAC operates more than 50 leading and diversified Internet businesses across 30 countries... our mission is to harness the power of interactivity to make daily life easier and more productive for people all over the world. To view a full list of the companies of IAC please visit our website at http://www.iac.com/.
About CollegeHumor Media
CollegeHumor Media, comprised of CollegeHumor.com, TodaysBigThing.com, and SportsPickle.com is a collection of leading online entertainment companies operated by IAC targeting a core audience of young males age 18-24. CollegeHumor Media delivers daily comedic content, including videos, pictures, articles and jokes, created and/or curated by the CollegeHumor staff. Attracting more than 6 million monthly uniques and generating more than 90 million monthly page views (Nielsen/Net Ratings November 2008), CollegeHumor Media provides online advertisers across a variety of categories with an efficient vehicle for reaching the desirable young adult demographic.
About Notional
Notional is a New York based production company, creating video content for all distribution platforms. Born out of CollegeHumor.com, the company seeks to capitalize on the site's existing "attention getting and cost efficient" production capabilities and online expertise to become the premiere next generation content entity.
Contact Information: IAC Communications IAC Investor Relations Stacy Simpson/ Leslie Cafferty Eoin Ryan (212) 314-7470 / 7280 (212) 314-7400 CollegeHumor Jessica Berger (212) 691-2800
IAC
CONTACT: Stacy Simpson, +1-212-314-7470 or Leslie Cafferty,
+1-212-314-7280, both of IAC Communications; Eoin Ryan, IAC Investor
Relations, +1-212-314-7400; or Jessica Berger, CollegeHumor, +1-212-691-2800
Web Site: http://www.iac.com/
