Cheddar (TV channel)

Cheddar Inc. is an American live streaming financial news network founded by Jon Steinberg in the United States. Cheddar broadcasts live daily from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq, the Flatiron Building in New York City, and the White House lawn and briefing room in Washington, D.C. covering new products, technologies, and services.

Cheddar targets millennials by streaming one to two hours of live content from the NYSE trading floor daily, streaming live audio on iHeartRadio, and distributing the videos on video platforms such as Amazon Prime, the Cheddar app, Facebook live, Sling TV, Pluto TV, Haystack News and YouTube. It is also available in Canada via RiverTV channel 25.

According to Steinberg, Cheddar received 148 million views in August 2017 across all of its platforms. On Facebook, 60 percent of Cheddar's viewers are under the age of 35. Accordingly, the daily live shows have been described as "quasi-CNBC for millennials".

Reportage focuses on stocks and technology. The channel is ad-free; expected revenue comes from carriage agreements with streaming services. Advertising comprises either program underwriting or semi-weekly brand integration. Brand integration advertising costs $100,000 per year.

Cheddar has two feeds, a paid-for and a free version. The paid feed broadcasts eight hours of programming a day, six of them live, and is available via Amazon Prime, Sling TV, YouTube TV, and the Cheddar app. The free feed broadcasts three hours of new content daily and archived content is available through Facebook and over the air via its affiliated stations. In April 2017, the channel had 100,000 viewers.

On April 30, 2019, it was announced that Cheddar agreed to be bought by the cable company Altice USA for $200 million in cash.

History

Formation

Jon Steinberg, formerly president of BuzzFeed and CEO of '' Daily Mail North America'', conceived the concept after leaving the latter in 2015. He considered naming the company "Ticker" until ''Bustle''s founder, Bryan Goldberg, came up with the name Cheddar.

Steinberg founded Cheddar in early 2016 and hired Peter Gorenstein, a senior producer at Yahoo, as the channel's chief content officer in January 2016. In September 2017, Cheddar hired Anjali Kumar, former Warby Parker executive and Google lawyer, as its first general counsel and chief people officer.

In the company's first financing round in January 2016, it raised nearly $3 million, primarily from Snapchat and Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew, and additional funds from WGI Group, Homebrew, Jerry Speyer, and David Fiszel.

Operating

Cheddar began streaming on April 11, 2016, on Facebook Live with one hour of programming at 9:30 am. Cheddar initially streamed all videos for free, but in May 2016, the company launched a subscription video-on-demand service. Smaller clips continue to be released, but full-length videos are exclusive to subscribers. On May 23, 2016, SirusXM began carrying Cheddar.

Cheddar raised $10 million in funding on September 6, 2016, all of which was an equity deal from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Comcast Ventures, and Ribbit Capital. Cheddar used the investments to increase programming and set up a new studio in Santa Monica, California, becoming the company's fifth studio.

The channel teamed with ''Bustle'' to launch its afternoon show ''Extra Sharp'' on May 18, 2016. Melissa Rosenthal, a former BuzzFeed executive, was hired in May 2016 as creative development and partnership executive. Five half-hour shows (''Wheels'' - automobiles, ''Points on Point'' - smart spending, ''Your Future Home'' - real estate, ''Your Cheddar'' - personal finance, and ''Cheddar Trading'' - roundtable discussion on trading) were developed by November 2016, when they were shopped to find underwriting. In September 2016, Twitter made a deal with Cheddar to broadcast its daily coverage, with the stated purpose of giving the Twitter community a platform to watch and discuss the news live.

In January 2017, '' Vanity Fairs ''Hive'' business news and Condé Nast Entertainment partnered with Cheddar to create a live weekly series called ''VF Hive on Cheddar''. Graydon Carter, a ''Vanity Fair'' editor, called the series a "representation of how people are consuming more voraciously than ever."

Propagate Content in March 2017 partnered with Cheddar to produce a weekly 45-minute show for international markets. Propagate also became Cheddar's international sales representative. The company purchased StockStream, a Twitch hosted crowd-sourcing investment decision website, from the creator Mike Roberts in July 2017. Also in 2017, Cheddar purchased Need2Know newsletter.

On August 5, 2017, Cheddar opened its second New York studio at the Flatiron Building in Manhattan. The Flatiron studio was built for its ''Cheddar Life'' series.

In April 2017, Cheddar began broadcasting on digital UHF stations in five markets and rents the broadcast spectrum from DTV America. Dunkin' Donuts, a Cheddar advertiser, gave free digital antennas at events in the stations' markets to publicize the over the air launch.

Cheddar announced $19 million in its third round of financing in May 2017, which was led by Raine Ventures along with investors: AT&T, Amazon, Altice USA, NYSE, Lorne Michael's Broadway Video, and some existing investors. To date, the company has raised $32.1 million and has a valuation of $85 million as of June 2017. Cheddar also hired Ross Cooperman, former head of engineering at Knowme Systems, as its chief technology officer.

Cheddar partnered with Univision's Fusion Media Group in June 2017 to air two hours on the latter's Fusion TV cable television network every weekday afternoon, with the programming available for cable users on DISH, DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse

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