About one year after he left Viacom’s MTV Networks, where he was vice chairman, Herb Scannell resurfaced as CEO of Next New Networks, a new company planning to develop broadband “micro television networks” and armed with $8 million in series-A funding from Spark Capital.
Other partners in the company include Fred Seibert, founder of Frederator Studios and the original creative director of MTV; Emil Rensing, an original member of the AOL Greenhouse and creator of the VOD Cars podcast; Jed Simmons, former chief operating officer of the Sundance Group and senior executive at Excite and Turner Broadcasting System; and Tim Shey, cofounder of Proteus and a veteran producer of interactive and mobile media.
“Our thing is simple: We’re audience people,” Scannell said in a release Thursday. “We’re championing and targeting communities that are making and distributing robust content and providing them a home base with networks built specifically for the Internet.”
Spark general partner Dennis Miller said in the release that Scannell’s team “has a proven track record and have created billions of dollars of brand value in both cable networks and programming and has first-mover experience in mobile, podcasting and video blogging.”
He added that New York-based Next New Networks has a chance to “make an impact on the next generation of Internet brands.”
