Before Denver-based Mania first launched, founding CEO Drew Massey bought a 1960s school bus from a junkyard to hold the online music channel’s production equipment.
Three years later, ManiaTV is charging ahead with former chief operating officer Peter Hoskins promoted to the driver’s seat of the online entertainment company.
User-generated videos are taking a back seat.
“Hype doesn’t equal profitability with user-generated content,” Hoskins said. “It’s very difficult to walk a balance between saying we’re a premium network with premium content and at the same time having some guy doing bad karaoke in his underwear. We are absolutely standing behind what is succeeding, which is premium content.”
Massey said he supported the decision.
About a dozen people in Denver have been laid off, partly due to the shift away from user-generated video, but Hoskins said more people will be hired in Los Angeles, keeping total employment around 70.
Massey had launched ManiaTV with backing of $5 million and presided when it signed an agreement with former MTV late-night show host Tom Green to do a live show from his Hollywood Hills living room. His reign also launched an initiative to host viewers’ own channels, with user-generated content.
Green and ManiaTV have since amicably parted ways, with ManiaTV having access to Green’s 186 episodes (he was signed to do 50) for a year.
The company is adding a studio in Los Angeles and is working to sign more Hollywood celebrities for shows. A new website design launches this fall, and user-generated video is taking a back seat to original programming, favored by advertisers who have their products wrapped in to ManiaTV programs.
The changes roared ahead after Massey gave up his office in June for the titles of chairman and “chief maniac,” or evangelist for the company. Hoskins, 41, became chief executive.
