'Fixer Upper' Stars to Head Their Own Streaming Network
by EG
When Fixer Upper stars Chip and Joanna Gaines claimed that they were ending their hit show to spend more time with their family, most observers suspected that they were really looking for new opportunities to expand their brand and make more money. Now we know that that was true, and we're getting new details about how their upcoming venture with Disney will work.
Joanna and Chip Gaines, the former hosts of HGTV hit show Fixer Upper, are hard at work on creating a linear network built around them, which will also have a direct-to-consumer offering, Discovery CEO David Zaslav said on the company's quarterly earnings conference call on Tuesday.
The couple late last year announced plans for a lifestyle network inspired by their home and lifestyle company Magnolia in Waco, Texas. It was back then understood that they would own a minority stake in the network, which would be one of Discovery's weaker channels in terms of ratings.
Zaslav said Tuesday that Discovery has focused on growing its eight core networks, which account for 85 percent of the firm's carriage fees. HGTV became part of Discovery in its $14.6 billion acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive last year. And he reiterated past comments that "over time, you will see fewer channels" in the pay TV industry as weaker networks may be shuttered amid ratings pressures and digital competition.
But the Discovery boss said the company still sees opportunities for channels with strong offerings built around popular brands and personalities. "We also have Chip and Joanna who are hard at work, and we have been down to Waco," Zaslav said on the call. "We think that is a very unique opportunity to enhance a channel and grow a channel. No other media company in the last couple of years has been able to go on offense and grow as many channels, in fact most media companies haven't launched any new channels. And we have ID that didn't exist, the number 1 cable channel for women in total day, we have the Oprah Winfrey Network, number 1 for African-American women, we launched Velocity."
Continued Zaslav: "We now have an opportunity, with Chip and Jo, to take a network that is doing okay and take it to the next level, but ... we also have a real vision for that in terms of going direct to consumer."
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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