Long before there was YouTube or TikTok, Vin Di Bona, creator of America’s Funniest Home Videos, built a business on user-generated content. Now in the streaming era, America’s Funniest Home Videos (abbreviated as AFV) is still going strong on ABC after 33 years on broadcast.
“You can go on YouTube, you can go on TikTok, you can go on any platform you want and occasionally, you get something that ‘s funny or amazing,” Di Bona told B+C Multichannel News. ”But our show’s curated and everything on the show is funny or amazing.”
The curation is crucial. Add in writing that is contrapuntal to the video, stating something funny to go along with the funny scenes you’re seeing. Present with appealing hosts. “That is the simplicity of the formula,” he said. “It’s not complicated. Basically we got people falling down, but it’s how you do that.”
In January, Di Bona sold his companies, Vin Di Bona Productions and FishBowl Worldwide Media, to an investor group led by Clarion Capital Partners.
“We are excited to partner with Vin and his team,” David Ragins, a managing director at Clarion, said. “Vin is a true visionary who has built a legendary television and digital production company that has been a leader for decades. At Clarion we have built a thematic focus on video content that is effective in multiple channels including traditional TV, CTV and digital. Investing in Vin’s company is our first step in building a new leading platform in an industry known for its innovation and creativity.”
Di Bona is not disclosing the purchase price. But at age 78, he has agreed to stay on for at least five more years as executive producer of AFV. “I’ve been doing this for 55 years; I love doing it,” he said. “I’m not going to stop.”
Di Bona has accumulated a library of 2 million clips. Another 5,000 clips come in every week. Recently, doorbell cameras have proved a boon of new material for the show. “It seems people don’t realize that when it rains overnight, the stairs are going to be icy,” he said.
Tapping Into New Tech
Di Bona’s company is taking advantage of technology to monetize its library in new ways.
The main show, AFV, streams on Disney Plus, where it is one of the top 10 shows. Di Bona also puts together video packages that appear on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. Each platform requires a different approach, with longer packages on YouTube and shorter ones on Instagram and TikTok.
“We are now getting into FAST [free ad-supported streaming TV] channels,” he said. “It gets down to one word, content. And if I were to make it two words, I would say funny content. If you have funny content you have a shot at any new format or way to watch because ultimately, people want to laugh.”
The company has grown its digital media staff from three people 10 years ago to 30 people just in social media today.
AFV still derives the bulk of its revenue from network license fees, but digital revenue adds up. “Let me put it this way, we do OK,” Di Bona said.
Di Bona has been doing OK in the TV business for more than half a century. He originally got interested in television when he visited stations as a teen pop singer in the early ’60s. He got a bachelor’s degree in TV and radio from Emerson College and a master’s in documentary film from UCLA. Di Bona got a job at WBZ Boston, a powerhouse station that would preempt NBC programming once a month to show a documentary that he would produce, followed by a live talk show discussing it.
He headed to the West Coast, interviewed for jobs for nine months before getting a job at CBS directing and producing documentaries that won Emmy and Peabody Awards.
He produced Battle of the Network Stars and Entertainment Tonight; he likes to note that he hired Mary Hart, who became the long-running host of ET. Later, fraternity brother Henry Winkler — yes, the Fonz — brought him in to line-produce the pilot for MacGyver, a show Winkler produced after starring in Happy Days.
After Di Bona started his own production company, his wife pointed out a funny clip of a frilled lizard on the local news. It turned out the clip came from a Japanese game show about animals. Di Bona acquired the U.S. rights to the show and pitched it to ABC. ABC bought Animal Crack-Ups and ran it on Saturday mornings, replacing American Bandstand.
Another Japanese series was brought to his attention, a variety show that finished up with funny home videos from early camcorders. “They asked me what I thought and I told them, ‘Variety is dead. Let’s just run all home videos and make it a contest,’ ” Di Bona recalled. “And guess what? It worked.”
Di Bona said that people have been offering to buy his company for the last 15 years. The deal he agreed to was brought to him by two old friends, producer John Stevens, who recently sold his own company, and Hans Schiff, Di Bona’s former agent.
“They convinced a money management company [Clarion Capital] to put up or shut up. And they made a really wonderful deal for me. I get to play in the playpen and cash in a little bit for the future of my family. So it kind of all worked out,” DiBona said.
DiBona’s companies will be run as part of V10 Entertainment. Stevens is CEO and Schiff is president.
“Vin is one of the most successful and well-respected television producers of all time.” Stevens said.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work alongside Vin Di Bona and his incredible team,” Schiff said. “There is no greater way to transition from a 25-year career in representation to production with one of the finest producers in television.”
A week after the deal was done, the company had a town hall meeting with the staff.
“The most important thing these guys said was, ‘We’re not changing a thing,’ ” Di Bona said. “We’d be foolish to do
anything like that. It works.”
The new partners also explained that the investment from Clarion should mean new opportunities as additional production companies are acquired and there are new shows to work on.
Giving Young Creators a Shot
DiBona said he hopes that the company will be able to provide opportunities for young people with good ideas. “The problem with young people with good ideas is if they go to a network, it can take two years to make a deal,” he said. “They don’t have the money to sustain them, so it’s very difficult.”
When media companies make deals these days, they want to own the content. “I got lucky,” Di Bona said. “When I made that first deal with ABC for Animal Crack-Ups, we became 50-50 partners. When [AFV] came along, I was able to make that same deal. Those deals aren’t available today. They weren’t available 15 years ago.”
In addition to AFV, Vin Di Bona Productions and FishBowl Worldwide Media,
Di Bona produces a number of other shows and they have more in the works.
Di Bona said he’s doing a crime show for Amazon Prime Video and will be launching a new variety show for CBS.
“With ABC, we’re about to make a deal,” he said. “There’s a lot in the works. But you know, it just takes time. Damn, it takes forever. Persistence is what our business is. It’s not for the faint of heart.” ▪️
