Rooster Teeth, a digitally-focused entertainment and media company that also runs its own SVOD service, has named Ezra Cooperstein as president.

For the past three years, Cooperstein has been helping to lead the Rooster Teeth business as president of Fullscreen Media, which acquired Rooster Teeth in 2014.

Rooster Teeth produces shows such as RWBY and Red vs. Blue, and claims to have an online community of more than 45 million. It also runs its own SVOD services, with two subscription tiers, and also offers a subscription service through VRV, Ellation’s SVOD aggregation offering.

Its SVOD channel, called FIRST, has more than 250,000 subscribers. Rooster Teeth also runs its own RTX live events in locations such as Sydney and London.

RELATED: Rooster Teeth Expands SVOD Play   

In his new role, Cooperstein will head up key areas of revenue growth for Rooster Teeth, including FIRST, its consumer products and e-commerce business, live events, and external areas of the business that include strategic partnerships.

Prior to Fullscreen, Cooperstein was the founding CEO of Maker Studios (acquired by Disney in 2014), and was VP and director of innovations at Initiative, an ad agency subsidiary of IPG. He also served on the founding creative team of Al Gore’s Current TV channel (acquired by Al Jazeera in 2013) as VP, development and programming.

Amazon Channels, the SVOD aggregation service for Amazon Prime members, has begun to sell subscriptions to Fullscreen for $5.99 per month.

RELATED: Amazon Boosts Subscription ‘Channel’ Count Near Century Mark

Fullscreen, an OTT service majority owned by Otter Media (the joint venture of AT&T and The Chernin Group), is also sold as a stand-alone for $5.99 per month, supporting platforms such as iOS and Android mobile devices, Apple TV, and Chromecast adapters.

RELATED: Fullscreen Joins Apple TV Mix

Amazon Channels will give the subscription OTT service an additional outlet for its mix of shows, series and/or exclusives that includ Shane & Friends, Not Too Deep with Grace Helbig, Psychobabble  with Tyler Oakley & Korey Kuhl,Magic Funhouse, The Deleted, as well as upcoming originals that include Unzipped with Lizzie Velasquez.

RELATED: SVOD Surge (subscription required)

Extending the service to Amazon Channels also makes Fullscreen compatible with more than 650 devices as well as IMDb “X-Ray” integration.

Fullscreen’s commercial-free subscription service debuted internationally in April 2016.

Otter Media, the OTT-focused joint venture of The Chernin Group and AT&T formed in 2014, said it has hired Billy Parks to the newly-created role of EVP of creative and content strategy.

In that role, he’ll work with companies in Otter Media’s portfolio to develop audience-driven content for multiple formats and channels. He’ll also continue to oversee creative and production for AT&T Hello Lab, a collaboration between AT&T and Fullscreen Media’s Strategic Content Group that “connects digital influencers to their communities.”

Parks joins Otter Media from Fullscreen Media, the digital content provider that is majority-owned by Otter, and previously headed digital production at The Chernin Group.

RELATED: Otter Media Nabs Majority Stake In Fullscreen

Parks reports to Sarah Harden, president of Otter Media.

“Billy has been a longtime, valued co-collaborator through Fullscreen and The Chernin Group, where he consistently realized new potential and accelerated the evolution of digital content,” Harden said in statement.  “His work at Fullscreen on programming such as Hello Lab, @SummerBreak and SnapperHero for AT&T has centered on delivering future-focused content models that engage audiences across existing and emerging platforms. We look forward to taking our relationship with him to the next level as we use content across all formats to grow the influence and reach of Otter’s direct to consumer brands.”

Parks has also served as chief content officer at Judy McGrath’s Astronauts Wanted, and began his career producing TV commercials for brands such as Honda, P&G, NFL, and Microsoft, and music videos with artists including Jay Z, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Kanye West, Miley Cyrus, and Prince.

Fullscreen Media said it has hired former Vevo exec Scott Reich to the post of senior vice president of programming, where he’ll be tasked with overseeing the development of the OTT video service’s scripted an unscripted projects as well as content acquisition for Fullscreen’s subscription platform.

Reich will report to Fullscreen GM Martin Keely. Reich’s direct reports will include Polly Auritt, VP of scripted programming, Jason Kwong, head of content licensing and acquisition, as well as all programming, editorial and content operations departments at Fullscreen.

“Scott is an expert at programming fresh and exciting content lineups that engage passionate audiences,” Keely said in a statement. “With his leadership, our top-notch development and acquisition teams will continue delivering great storytelling and collaborating with creators to build upon the foundation in place for the service.”

Reich most recently was VP of programming and original content at Vevo. Before that, he was a  programming consultant at Fuse, acting as the lead talent executive for special events featuring Jay-Z, John Mayer and Maroon 5. He is also late of VOD cable network Concert.TV and VH1, where he was VP, multiplatform music programming.

Fullscreen is majority owned by Otter Media, the OTT joint venture of AT&T and The Chernin Group. 

Millennials, that coveted and seemingly tough-to-reach market segment, stream a lot of video, but a new study by Fullscreen conducted by WPP’s Kantar Vermeer tries to put a finer point on that trend.

From a high-level view, 69% in the 13-to-34 age group stream video on three or more occasions per week. Broken down further, the percentage is higher among teens (75%), while Millennials in the over-25 subgroup are at parity with the average (66%), according to an online survey conducted in March among 2,000 people (1,000 who were 12-17 years old, and 1,000 who were 18 to 34 years old).

Of the older sub-segment studies, 71% said they stream video through the TV at least an hour a day, versus teen usage that came in much lower – 56%.

“We have found the driver of this to be the preference of independent viewing experiences on laptops and mobile devices,” Bryon Schafer, senior vice president of measurement and insight at Otter Media, which owns Fullscreen, noted in a summary of the study.

And count Millennials among a group that will go out of its way to avoid ads due to a range of dislikes. More than 70% of them agree that interruptions are the most negative aspect of advertising, followed closely by ad repetition. Additionally, 36% of the teens sub-group, and 47% of the broader Millennials segment said they avoid or block ads every change they get.

Over half (53%) of Millennials and teens said they always skip online ads after five seconds, and a mere 5% said they never skip.

On the positive side (for advertisers, anyway), more than 75% of respondents said they are willing to watch branded content so long as they are enjoying the video, 82% of the total surveyed group said they are open to ads for products they are interested in, and 79% who see a brand stitched into the video will continue watching and don’t mind that the core content and the ad are presented together.

The study also shed some additional light on how influencers from the OTT realm inspire trust and relatability in content – about half (47%) of teens and 51% of the larger Millennials group follow someone on YouTube, and 60% of all surveyed felt that influencers are relatable, and 56% said they can trust what a YouTube influencers says.

And, given these trends, perhaps it’s no surprise that healthy cut of this group (44% of teens and about 30% of Millennials) aspire to become a YouTube influencer.

Boston – Netflix, Amazon and Hulu set the stage for OTT-delivered subscription VOD services, but a massive wave of more focused, genre-based has emerged to reach a more targeted audience, and that wave is only expected to get bigger.

That was a big focus here Tuesday (May 17) in a session titled, “Single and Loving It: The Who, How and Why of Standalone SVOD."

The benefits of this approach is that services can be created to target the “super fan” and serve an audience in a unique way that broader SVOD services don’t offer, said Martin Keely, GM of subscription platforms at Fullscreen, which recently launched a $4.99 per month SVOD service.

“We’re just getting started,” he said.

Seth Laderman, EVP and GM of Comic-Con HQ, likened the rapidly expanding SVOD market to a “race,” as everyone attempts to build and launch services for specific audiences, and then get those viewers to actually pay.

But he said there’s some risk involved in targeting niches, because those viewers will also be looking to find similar content from other sources.

There’s an “endless appetite” for premium content, so providers need to rein it in with a curated service,  Ben McLean, SVP of business operations and strategy, digital, at NBCUniversal and Seeso, the new comedy-focused SVOD service, said.

He said offering limitless choice works if viewers know what they want to watch. With Seeso, he said, “We want to [offer] a highly curated, highly-programmed environment” that can engage an audience quickly.

“Seeso is our first swing at this,” McLean said, calling its comedy focus a “large niche.” And expect more. NBCU, he added, is also “looking at digital opportunities across the landscape.”

“There are no more gatekeepers,” said Tom Pickett, CEO of Ellation, a company that produces, designs and helps to market services/brands like Crunchyroll, an Anime-focused service with more than 700,000 paid subs, and Creativebug, a service for craft enthusiasts.

But he agreed that the downside of this second stage of SVOD is the amount of choice and fragmentation in the market, which makes it difficult for a new service to breakout from the pack.

And the technology that underpins these services is as key as the content, David Mowrey, VP of product management at Clearleap, said, noting that more than 100 standalone SVOD services have been stood up over the past nine months.

Not everyone has the resources of  a Netflix to build in all the content protection, interfaces, analytics and billing support. “It’s an extremely challenging thing for a standalone service,” he said. “You need a solid technology partner to do that.”

And the core video service is just one element of these services. To gain and retain customers, SVOD providers must think about “dimensions that go well beyond the video,” Pickett said.

In the case of Crunchyroll, the service is building in additional perks and benefits. One example is its partnership with a service called Loot Crate, which a mystery box of four to six pop culture items. Loot Crate, Pickett said, recently launched a new box focused on Anime, so Crunchyroll offers its subs a $5 discount for it.

Fullscreen, the five-year-old company whose majority stakeholders include AT&T and The Chernin Group, used its second NewFronts presentation to announce a reorganization into three units focused on content creators, brands and consumers.

"We placed a big bet early on that creators would become media channels in their own right," said founder and CEO George Strompolos. "Today, we stand as a next generation media company transforming the way people watch and engage with content."

In remarks kicking off the session, Strompolos showed a snapshot of him in an empty apartment registering the domain name for Fullscreen. The photo, he noted, was taken on a Blackberry. "A lot can happen in five years," he said.

One new initiative of Fullscreen's consumer division is an SVOD service that launched April 26. It has "exceeded expectations" for subscriptions, Strompolos said, though he did not offer any numbers. He did note average daily use of 48 minutes for the service thus far.

Read more at B&C.

As the launch partner for Fullscreen’s coming $4.99 per month SVOD service, AT&T will emphasize a mobile-first approach, but will complement that with distribution of Fullscreen's content across other platforms, including the big screen. 

“We think this is a rather important part of our entertainment strategy as we target this particular demographic and look to build relationships with consumers who value content differently and consume it differently,” Tony Goncalves, the long-time DirecTV exec who now serves as senior vice president of strategy at the merged company, said. “We want to service all segments of the market, and we want to give them choice and flexibility.”

In addition to marketing the new Fullscreen SVOD offering to AT&T’s base of mobile, broadband and video subs, content from the service will also be featured as a programming block on the AUDIENCE Network, a linear service for U-verse TV and  DirecTV customers.

AT&T is working on specific offers involving Fullscreen, but it will also complement the set of DirecTV-branded OTT services that are in development and slated to launch in Q4, Goncalves said.

But, beyond the AUDIENCE block, are there any plans yet to offer Fullscreen as a “channel” on the traditional set-top box? Stay tuned.

“There is a premium to be had for highly curated content specifically targeted at a demo…We’re looking at a variety of ways to package the content,” Goncalves said, noting that some of that content will be featured on DirecTV’s and U-verse TV’s authenticated TV Everywhere apps.

But he said Fullscreen’s new offering is not unlike the intentions of MTV – a network targeted at the younger generation – while also carrying a premium like an HBO, Starz or Showtime.

“This one just happens to be one that’s targeted at millennials based on content by millennials and packaged in a way that’s mobile-first,” he said. “The true test is whether this mobile-first audience transcends to the big screen. The first test of that is this AUDIENCE block.”

And, with the new Fullscreen subscription service, AT&T isn’t the first to be targeting millennial audiences with a mobile-first offering. Verizon has go90 and Comcast has Watchable (which is also offered on X1 set-tops), but the key difference there is that those are free, ad-supported offerings. 

Fullscreen, the over-the-top multichannel service tailored for young consumers, last week hired Michael Goldfine to the post of chief content officer.

Goldfine, who joins Fullscreen from RockStream Studios, a company he founded in 2012 and is credited with creating the feature film Camp Takota, will focus on overseeing the development and production of premium scripted and unscripted content for Fullscreen. Prior to founding RSS, Goldfine launched AEG Digital Media, and also produced and directed shows for Warner Bros. Television, Fox and Fremantle.

"Michael brings years of production experience, a contagious entrepreneurial spirit and a unique understanding of digital talent to Fullscreen," said George Strompolos, Fullscreen's founder and CEO. "We are thrilled to join forces with someone as passionate about the future of entertainment as we are."

“There's a huge opportunity ahead,” Goldfine added. “And with Fullscreen’s resources, talented team and vast network, it's a perfect place to continue to change the way content is made and distributed.”

In September, Otter Media, the online joint venture of The Chernin Group and AT&T, agreed to acquire a majority stake in Fullscreen.

Otter Media, the online video joint venture of The Chernin Group and AT&T formed in April, has announced who will take the helm of the company’s day-to-day operations – Virasb Vahidi is now CEO of Otter Media, and Tom Pickett is CEO of a new Otter Media-controlled unit focused on building targeted VOD channels.

Vahidi, (pictured), formerly served as COO of American Airlines and was previously the SVP, corporate strategy and planning at AT&T, will lead Otter Media’s general operations and overall strategy, along with TCG and AT&T.

As CEO of the new unit of Otter Media, Pickett, an exec late of Google and YouTube, will focus on building advertising and subscription-based targeted video-on-demand channels, responsibilities that will include the J.V.’s current online video assets Crunchyroll and Creativebug. Pickett most recently served as vice president, YouTube Content.

Otter Media recently agreed to snap up a majority stake in Fullscreen, the popular YouTube networkt ailored for young consumers. Under that deal, Fullscreen CEO and founder George Strompolos will continue as CEO and retain a “material ownership stake” in Fullscreen.

“Virasb and Tom are joining Otter’s executive team during a time of tremendous opportunity in the OTT space. Their consumer-focused experience and superior leadership abilities are the perfect qualities to help steer our efforts, grow our existing businesses and expand the Otter portfolio,” said Jesse Jacobs, president of The Chernin Group, the majority investor of Otter, in a statement.

AT&T and The Chernin Group committed to invest $500 million in the OTT venture when they announced it in April. Otter Media made its first acquisition in July, shelling out $10 million for Creativebug Inc., a source for online video arts and crafts instruction. Otter Media also has a majority stake in Crunchyroll, an ad-supported video platform for Japanese anime and Korean content.

The Otter Media board of directors includes Peter Chernin and Jesse Jacobs of The Chernin Group, John Stankey and David Christopher of AT&T, and Virasb Vahidi.