Vuguru is an American independent multi-platform studio founded by

Michael Eisner Michael Dammann Eisner ( ; born March 7, 1942) is an American businessman and former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Walt Disney Company from September 1984 to September 2005. Prior to Disney, Eisner was president of rival film ...

The Tornante Company The Tornante Company, LLC is an American privately held investment firm founded in 2005 and owned by former Paramount Pictures and The Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner. Tornante invests in, acquires, and operates media and entertainment c ...

in March 2006. The company has produced content including the web series ''

Prom Queen A promenade dance or prom is a formal dance party for graduating high school students at the end of the school year. Students participating in the prom will typically vote for a ''prom king'' and ''prom queen''. Other students may be honored ...

'', ''

The Booth at the End ''The Booth at the End'' is a psychological thriller series created by Christopher Kubasik and starring Xander Berkeley, and was produced by Vuguru. The series premiered on August 27, 2010 on the Canadian network City (TV network), City. Two seas ...

'', ''Little Women Big Cars'', '' The All-for-Nots'', and ''Back on Topps''. The company has signed content deals with

AOL AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. The service traces its history to an online ...

HDNet AXS TV () is an American specialty television, cable television channel majority-owned by Canadian broadcaster Anthem Sports & Entertainment. It is devoted primarily to Music television, music-related programming (such as concert films, Document ...

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book author, writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Comics which later bec ...

POW! Entertainment POW! Entertainment Inc. is an American media production company formed in 2001 by Gill Champion, Arthur Lieberman and former Marvel Comics editor and publisher Stan Lee. POW! is made up of two companies: POW! Entertainment, Inc. (POW! Inc.), a ...

, and

FremantleMedia Fremantle Limited (), formerly FremantleMedia, is a British multinational television production and distribution company based in London. The company was founded as Pearson Television in 1993 when publishing and education company Pearson ...

. Its shows are distributed in over forty countries, on the Internet, mobile phones, and linear television platforms.

Corporate overview

Vuguru properties are distributed internationally in over forty countries. The company produces web television series for distribution on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

, portable media devices, television, and

cellphone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This radio ...

s. The name of the company was developed from the French word "''vous''" and the English word "guru", and combining the words creates a synthetic term that refers to "you are the guru viewing" according to company founder

. Eisner also stated that the purpose of the firm was to produce "story-driven content for the Internet that up until now could only be found in movie theaters or on television". In October 2009, Vuguru was spun off as a separate LLC with funding from

Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet, with significant additional telecommunications and mass media ass ...

, one of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

's largest communications companies. In November 2010, Vuguru signed an agreement with

to produce a minimum of six scripted series over the next year, each a series of roughly 90-minute episodes, for distribution by AOL. Vuguru also signed a distribution and first-look deal with Content Film in 2010 for regions outside of North America. In 2012 Eisner signed a distribution deal with

Universal Studios Universal Studios may refer to: * Universal Studios, Inc., an American media and entertainment conglomerate ** Universal Pictures, an American film studio ** Universal Studios Lot, a film and television studio complex * Various theme parks operat ...

, which he stated is a step towards film development for both Vuguru produced projects and other properties. Vuguru signed an additional content creation pact with

, in addition to its deals with

and

. In 2013

will become the main international distributor for Vuguru, distributing its products outside of the US and Canada.

Multi-platform content

Early Vuguru multi-platform series included '' SamHas7Friends'' (which Vuguru acquired in 2007) and ''

Foreign Body A foreign body (FB) is any object originating outside the body of an organism. In machinery, it can mean any unwanted intruding object. Most references to foreign bodies involve propulsion through natural orifices into hollow organs. Foreign b ...

'', a prequel to the novel by

Robin Cook Robert Finlayson "Robin" Cook (28 February 19466 August 2005) was a British Labour Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 until his death in 2005 and served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 until ...

, shot primarily on location in New Delhi, India. In 2010 Vuguru targeted the production of ten to fifteen new series for Internet distribution. In 2011 Vuguru partnered with comic book guru

's company

to produce additional content. New Vuguru web series have included ''Don't Ask, Don't Tell'', ''Little Women Big Cars'', ''The Millionaire Tour'', ''Nuclear Family'', ''Off Season'', ''Fetching'', ''Crawlspace'', and ''Pretty Tough''.

''Prom Queen''

The studio's first project, ''

'', consisted of 90-second shorts in 80 episodes and was distributed online, beginning in April 2007. The cost of each 90-second episode was approximately $3000. The project was well reviewed online and attracted over twenty millions viewers. The second season was entitled ''Prom Queen: Summer Heat'', and the third season ''Prom Queen: Homecoming'' was released on the CW network platforms.

''The All-for-Nots''

The Vuguru web series '' The All-for-Nots'' was distributed online by

. The show has been described as modern version of ''

The Monkees The Monkees were an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. The band consisted of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones (musician), Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. Spurred by the success of ''The Monkees (TV series), Th ...

'' or '' Spinal Tap'', as it features a made-for-the-web

indie band Independent music (also commonly known as indie music, or simply indie) is a broad style of music characterized by creative freedoms, low-budgets, and a do-it-yourself approach to music creation, which originated from the liberties afforded by in ...

with the same name as the title of the show. The web series follows the All-for-Nots, a band originating in

Williamsburg Williamsburg may refer to: Places *Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia *Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City *Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California *Williams ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, on a fictional national tour across the US. It was released in 24 seven-minute episodes, in addition to 30 shorter web clips that provide background on the band and its members. The show was nominated for three

Streamy Awards The YouTube Streamy Awards, also known as the Streamy Awards or Streamys, are an awards show presented annually by Dick Clark Productions and Tubefilter to recognize excellence in online video, including directing, acting, producing, and wr ...

in 2009, including Best Cinematography in a Web Series, Best Original Music in a Web Series, and Best Ad Integration in a Web Series, which it lost to fellow Vuguru web series ''Back on Topps''.

''Back on Topps''

Vuguru produced two seasons of the sports comedy web series ''Back on Topps''. The show was nominated for a

Sports Emmy Award The Sports Emmy Awards, or Sports Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Sports E ...

for Outstanding New Approaches in Sports Programming: Short Format in 2009. That year the show also won a 2009 Streamy Award for Best Ad Integration in a Web Series. In 2010 it was the winner of the Streamy Award for Best Branded Entertainment Web Series and nominee for the 2010 Streamy Awards for Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series, Best Ensemble Cast in a Web Series, and Best Guest Star in a Web Series. Eisner's investment company is the owner of the

Topps The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures trading cards and other collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of Baseball card, baseball and other sports and Non-sports tradi ...

merchandise company, from which the series gets its name. The comedy was played on '' FoxSports.com'', and was described in its first season as a seventeen episode

mockumentary A mockumentary (a portmanteau of ''mock'' and ''documentary'') is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a Documentary film, documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to analyze or comment on current event ...

''The Booth at the End''

'', a psychological thriller in 23-minute installments, made its debut in 2010 in Canada on the website of

CityTV Citytv (sometimes shortened to City, which was the network's official branding from 2012 to 2018) is a Television in Canada, Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The network consis ...

. The content is also available in 62 separate two-minute online episodes, and on FX. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' said of the quality of the series that, "There is more talent and effort poured into one 120-second nugget, demanding a corresponding surge in effort and engagement from the viewer, than there is in almost any hour of TV elsewhere that you care to name." The show centers around individuals who encounter a man named Xander Berkeley. Berkeley sits in a diner booth silently looking out the window, waiting for a stranger to approach him with friendly banter. When they do, their journey begins. Tasks have included the robbing of a bank for exactly $101,043 in exchange for beauty or setting off a bomb in a cafe in order for a woman's husband to be cured of Alzheimer's.

Executives

The Chairman and founder of Vuguru is Michael Eisner. In 2009 Vuguru hired

Larry Tanz Larry Tanz is an American entertainment industry executive. He has held executive positions with AOL Time Warner, and previously served as president and CEO of LivePlanet, as well as the president and CEO of Vuguru. He is currently the VP of G ...

as the company's first President, after having previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of

LivePlanet LivePlanet was a production company founded in 2000, and was known for television and new media platforms. History It was created by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Moore (film producer), Chris Moore and Sean Bailey. Affleck and Damon ended their ...

. They also hired David Shall as their head of business operations, now COO, who was formerly a business affairs executive at

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

. In 2010 the company hired Kristin Jones as its Chief Creative Officer, a former senior vice-president of production, international development, and acquisitions with

Miramax Miramax, LLC, formerly known as Miramax Films, is an American independent film and television production and distribution company owned by beIN Media Group and Paramount Global. Based in Los Angeles, California, it was founded on December 19, ...

. Jones left Vuguru in August, 2013. Tanz was promoted to CEO in February 2012. Eisner stated of Tanz that, "Under his leadership, the company has expanded its production slate, created valuable partnerships and increased profitability."

References

External links

Official site
{{Streamy Awards Winners CSS Discontinued Private equity portfolio companies Streaming television in the United States Rogers Communications Michael Eisner