Veteran tv producer Lemuel Plummer will look to reach faith-based African American viewers with a new streaming service set to launch in third quarter 2019.

The service, Black Box Faith, will feature hundreds of thousands of hours of sermons and other religious-themed content currently archived by churches and pastors, according to service officials. 

Plummer (Preachers of L.A., Zeus Network) will team with ICM Partners, Ebony/Jet magazines and Vimeo on the project, which he said will be the first ever SVOD platform to provide instant access to the word of God anytime, anywhere and on any device. The subscription price for Black Box Faith as well as distribution deals will be released at a later date, according to service officials. 

“With Black Box Faith we are delivering sermons and faith-based content to a deeply religious and dedicated African American audience that is very adept using technology to access must-watch content whenever, wherever and on any device,” said Plummer in a statement. “We want to change a generation, changing how committed, faith-based audiences receive content.”

RELATED: Lemuel Plummer Looks To Light up Web  With Zeus OTT Service 

TV producer Lemuel Plummer (Preachers Of LA ) has taken his talents to the web through the launch last month of millennials-targeted subscription VOD service Zeus. The $3.99 per month service will feature content created and promoted by some of the most popular personalities in social media, including King Bach, DeStorm Power, Lil Tay and Amanda Cerny.

I recently caught up with Zeus’ president and CEO to discuss the OTT service’s launch, as well as to talk about his thoughts about moving from linear TV into a growing and competitive digital SVOD space.

What do you want to accomplish with Zeus?

We are launching the first ever subscription video on demand platform created by millennials for millennials. For me it's really something near and dear to my heart. I've always wanted to own my own content and also give others the opportunity to own their content and monetize it in a different way. I've recognized that social media creators have been using the tools that they have to just create whatever content they can on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube Twitter. As a result, they've been getting tens of millions of people to watch their content weekly, daily, monthly, and there's a lot of power in that. The problem is a lot of these social media platforms do not create ways for influencers to monetize their content, nor do they provide them with the proper tools to do so. So what I've been trying to do is to give them the tools, a distribution platform and a monetization feature to allow them to make money from the content that they create, and to give them truly total freedom and creative control over their content.

You personally have successfully launched shows within the traditional media space. Can you expect the same type of audience and revenue success offering a SVOD service in the still emerging digital arena?

As you said I come from traditional television and I recognize that trying to sell shows to networks was becoming a lot more difficult because ratings were down all across the board. I also recognize that budgets were getting reduced, and the development process was becoming a lot more brutal as some cable networks were eroding and transitioning. At the same time eyeballs were transitioning to a lot of these video on demand platforms, whether AVOD, PVOD or SVOD. The numbers don't lie ... when you see some of the popular SVOD services like Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, a lot of eyeballs are on these platforms, and they are evolving and growing. Yes, linear channels are still running but millennials and young folks are really watching short-form content on their mobile devices. Instagram recently announced that they have a billion users now; YouTube has over 1.5 billion monthly users. For me, I recognize that these creators are driving all of this traffic to these platforms.

What are the advantages of incorporating social media stars into Zeus’ overall business strategy?

The problem has been that these social media platforms are building billions of dollars in revenue and valuations were worth hundreds of billions of dollars off the backs of these creators, and I don't think it's fair. I wanted to create a platform to invite them to be strategic partners. Some of the top influencers in the world like Amanda Cerny, King Bach and DeStorm Power who have combined over 70 million followers across the board are actually equity partners in the company. It was important to give them that power, as well as the other creators  on board who have a rights-share deal with us. So for me it was an important transition into this space … this is where [the industry] is headed and this is the future.

How do you then get the message out about Zeus and draw in subscribers?

We are currently utilizing our content creators' social media channels to market their series, so we've provided a ton of marketing assets to our creators, including trailers, posters and all sorts of promotional assets. That’s really what we believe is going to generate a ton of subscribers; they are going to promote across all of their social media platforms. Our strategy internally with our digital marketing team is to put some of our own assets out in a different way as well. So for me and for all of us at Zeus we understand that the more promotional assets that we can put out, the more it drives traffic to these platforms.

A new subscription video on demand service targeted to millennials is set to debut in July.

The ad-free streaming service Zeus – founded by TV producer Lemuel Plummer (Preachers of LA franchise) along with social media stars King Bach, Amanda Cerny and DeStorm Power – will launch July 13 and will feature exclusive, premium original scripted and unscripted series and video content created by millennials.

Zeus will be available to subscribers for $3.99 per month on mobile and desktop computers at www.TheZeusNetwork.com. The Zeus mobile and connected TV apps will also be available on the Apple App store, Google Play Store, and Amazon App Store, according to the company.

The shows will feature such YouTube influencers as Jake Paul and Lamorne Morris, who the service hopes will draw on their more than 120 million social media followers to market and promote Zeus.

“On this network, we are greenlighting people, not shows." said Lemuel Plummer, president and CEO of Zeus in a statement. "Millennials can access exclusive, premium original content from a variety of their favorite creators, only available on Zeus. For this audience and for the platform, the influencers are the draw. Our goal is to extend what’s possible in Hollywood from a creative and business perspective to provide a different paradigm for these original and enterprising new voices in social media and their millions of fans."

The network also announced an agreement with SAG-AFTRA which will provide coverage for content produced by ZEUS and a pathway to SAG-AFTRA membership for ZEUS content creators, according to company officials.