Ellen DeGeneres Launches New Digital Video Site, ellentube

Ellen DeGeneres and Warner Bros.’ Ellen on Thursday launched a new digital video destination, ellentube.

Announcing the new site on her show, DeGeneres said: “I am so excited to tell you about this. It’s a new thing called ellentube, and it’s a place that you can find videos that are hilarious and interesting. We’re going to post things from the show that you won’t see anywhere else. And what makes our site different than any other place is that if you accidentally type in a wrong word, you’re not going to stumble upon something that’s bad or mean or something like that. You know how that can happen. So everything on the site is fun, and there is nothing mean-spirited.”

The site, which also will be available as an iOS app, will feature exclusive online video from The Ellen DeGeneres Show, clips from the show, and user-generated content submitted by Ellen viewers and fans. All content on the site and app will be family-friendly and curated by DeGeneres and her team. Target, also a brand partner of Ellen this season, is ellentube’s official launch sponsor.

DeGeneres already has a huge digital following. EllenTV.com averages 100 million page views monthly and The Ellen Show’s YouTube channel averages more than 100 million viewers per month and boasts more than 10 million subscribers. @TheEllenShow has more than 33 million Twitter followers, more than 16 million likes on Facebook and more than six million followers on Instagram. In addition, DeGeneres’s “Heads Up!” app has been downloaded more than 5.5 million times.

The new site was created by DeGeneres in concert with Ellen executive producers Mary Connelly, Ed Glavin and Andy Lassner. Fans visiting ellentube will be able to upload their own videos, with user-generated submissions to be reviewed by the Ellen team before being posted to the site. The best user videos will be considered for possible showcase on Ellen.

Ellentube marks the first initiative from the recently formed Ellen Digital Ventures, a new business created by WBTVG and DeGeneres that will extend the television franchise and digital businesses. Jill Braff will serve as general manager of Ellen Digital Ventures, reporting to Mike Darnell, president, Warner Bros. unscripted and alternative television, and Donna Redier Linsk, executive VP, business operations and programming. Braff also will work closely with Ellen’s executive producers. She previously was executive VP of digital commerce for HSN.

Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.