AOL announced a new year-round video content strategy Tuesday night.
The web company said it will offer shareable, snackable short-form content, mid-form content and long-form programming that will be available on all screens, including phones, tablets, desktops, TVs and over-the top.
Talent involved in projects that are part of AOL’s Content365 strategy includes Steve Buscemi, Ryan Duffy, James Franco, Kevin Jonas, Sarah Lane, Jared Leto, Marcus Peters, Michael Rapaport, Deion Sanders, Kevin White and Leonard Williams.
AOL made the announcement as part of the Digital Content NewFronts highlighting digital video for advertisers.
“We are embarking on a whole new era of digital content,” Dermot McCormack, AOL, president of video and studios, said in a statement. “With our 2015 NewFront line-up of original video content made to fit multiple screens and formats, we are reimagining the definition of original programming and setting the vision for the content industry’s future, which we believe to be the very best of what TV does combined with the mobility, interactivity and openness of the internet. Content is still king but it’s the kingdom that is changing.”
Here is a list of some of the shows upcoming from AOL.
• Rising Artists
Rising Artists showcases the best in up-and-coming music, bringing you the bands you'll love before you know they exist. Each month, a different Rising Artist will be featured over several short form videos: from live performances and day-in-the-life footage, to Vine and Instagram videos in recording studios and backstage on tour. The next #1 song ... Your next favorite band ... While they're on the rise.
• What to Watch
Hosted by Ricky Camilleri, What to Watch is a daily, 2-5 minute tour across what’s on all the screens out there, from the iPhone to IMAX. Seriously, with all the videos, TV shows, movies and apps out there, someone’s got to cut through the clutter and cat videos to get you to the good stuff. What to Watch will also give you a fresh angle on what you’re already binge-watching.
• Beyond the Horizon With Jared Leto
This is a series dedicated to learning about the future from some of the most fascinating and innovative minds in the present. The creativity of the human race is becoming increasingly more impressive and technology that was unimaginable yesterday is becoming tomorrow's reality. In this in-depth documentary interview series, Academy Award-winning actor, musician and tech investor/advisor Jared Leto will engage in conversations about the future with the world’s most interesting visionaries in the arenas of science, art, technology and politics.
• Act Like A Musician
Everyone wants to be a rock-star, even famous actors. In this groundbreaking series, today’s hottest actors get to live the dream by uniting with the bands they’ve always loved. In each episode, one lucky member of Hollywood’s elite will head into the rehearsal studio with his or her new musical mentors to learn how to play one of the band’s biggest hits. It all culminates with a one-time-only performance that is the best of both worlds. This is where the A-list meets the set list.
• Citizen Mars
In a series that is both human and out of this world, we’ll go in depth with five of the finalists from the hotly contested Mars 100 competition: everyday people dead set on making Mars their final destination. Through interviews and extensive verite, we’ll uncover the obsession with the future, adventure and space that’s propelling them to leave everything — and everyone — behind.
• #BUILTBYGIRLS: Girl U
Brought to you by Cambio’s hugely successful initiative #BUILTBYGIRLS (which saw our site recreated, designed and coded by girls), #BUILTBYGIRLS: Girl U follows a “class” of four bright and bold young women as they're given a crash course in various disciplines by a different Influencer each episode. Lessons run the gamut from business and robotics to film and fashion, and conclude with a challenge that the girls must complete in just 24 hours. As an added twist, the girls will cocreate the series with self-produced content in the form of confessionals and how-to companion videos.
• The Thursday Sports Show with Ben Lyons
As part of AOL’s previously-announced premium partnership with The Players’ Tribune, The Thursday Sports Show with Ben Lyons is a weekly destination where sports fans connect with today's top professional athletes through candid player profiles, hilarious social media round-ups and irreverent field pieces. The show provides real fans with real access to the sports stars they love, each and every Thursday.
• How it Happened
As part of AOL’s previously announced premium partnership with The Players’ Tribune, How it Happened is a new storytelling vehicle for world-class athletes to spotlight the funnier side of the games we love. Our athlete narrators will guide viewers through their favorite behind-the-scenes story — from locker room pranks to epic off-field errors — while the narrative comes to life on screen via world-class animation. Whether it’s one athlete narrator or several contesting the details of the same story one thing is for sure…you’ll be surprised learning how it happened.
• Upcoming Shows from The Huffington Post
- Now What with Ryan Duffy: Former Vice correspondent Ryan Duffy has been shot in Colombia, jailed in Cairo while covering the Arab Spring and sojourned in North Korea. Now, instead of going around the world putting his life at risk, showing how utterly messed up the world can be, he’s taken on a new mission to put a spotlight on what’s working around the world and telling the stories of people working toward solutions to our many crises. In his new docu-series Now What?, Ryan brings the same adventurous spirit to stories that give us a full and accurate picture of what’s happening in the world — not just the violence, tragedy, dysfunction and corruption, but the innovation, creativity, ingenuity and compassion too often overlooked by the media.
- The HuffPost 10: 10 short films from 10 creative and diverse storytellers about 10 people, things or causes that together are making the world a better place. To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of The Huffington Post, we are embarking on a project that truly embodies the spirit and vision behind the brand that has engaged and inspired hundreds of millions of people globally. This collection of stories is a celebration of what’s working globally and in our own lives from the perspective of the world’s greatest filmmakers and storytellers.
- Culture Shock: Groundbreaking ways the workplace is changing for the better as demonstrated by the world’s most progressive companies.
- What’s Working: A daily international look at the people, places and things that are making positive changes around the world. A counterbalance to the exploitative and negative stories most news focuses on.
- Fabulous Stay-at-Home Dads: An intimate look at the powerful men running the households behind the world’s most successful women.
- Talk Nerdy To Me: Nerd culture made sexy. Hardcore Nerdcore.
- Thrive Science: A scientific look at the emotional and physical benefits around sleep, meditation, mindfulness and general wellness.
- 16 and President: A day-in-the-life of a presidential candidate. Grueling, unglamorous, intimate and revealing.
- You’re Doing it Wrong: A cooking demo video series showing basic kitchen hacks that undo conventional wisdom around kitchen classics.
- Talk To Me: Kids interviewing their parents. A revealing, intimate and probing Q&A session and look into the relationship between notable parents and their children.
- Global Street Art Now: Profiling the best and least known street artists making moves in the global art world.
