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SourceFed Studios

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SourceFed Studios was an American digital media company and multi-channel network created by Philip DeFranco in 2011. After finding success during the early years of YouTube with his eponymous news show , DeFranco secured funding from YouTube and launched SourceFed as part of the YouTube Original Channel Initiative in 2012.

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57-733: SourceFed was one of the more successful YouTube-funded channels and a nerd culture-focused spinoff, SourceFedNerd, was launched in 2013. DeFranco then sold his DeFranco Creative portfolio, which included SourceFed to Revision3 , a subsidiary of Discovery Digital Networks (DDN). Under that portfolio, SourceFed's production and hosting staff launched and worked on various sister channels including SourceFedNerd, People Be Like, Super Panic Frenzy, and ForHumanPeoples (later rebranded as Nuclear Family). In 2016, DDN folded Revision3 into Seeker and renamed DeFranco Creative as SourceFed Studios. Seeker and SourceFed Studios were then acquired by Group Nine Media in late 2016. In March 2017, Group Nine shut down

114-423: A blog of the same name, was one of these channels. DeFranco revealed that he acquired the funding to launch the channel by originally promising YouTube that the channel would be run as a "celebrity gossip channel", and that it would consist of a single show rather than multiple different shows. However, DeFranco negotiated for less funding, in return to have creative control over the channel's content. The funding

171-432: A blog of the same name, was one of these channels. DeFranco revealed that he acquired the funding to launch the channel by originally promising YouTube that the channel would be run as a "celebrity gossip channel", and that it would consist of a single show rather than multiple different shows. However, DeFranco negotiated for less funding, in return to have creative control over the channel's content. DeFranco also hand-picked

228-442: A five-hour live event hosted by SourceFed and DeFranco, was nominated for a Streamy Award for Best Live Event . Philip DeFranco later created a spinoff channel, SourceFedNerd (stylized as SourceFedNERD ), which was announced on May 16, 2013. In June 2013, Philip DeFranco sold SourceFed along with the other channels under his DeFranco Creative portfolio to Revision3 . DeFranco also became an executive of Revision3 and

285-400: A live event from YouTube Space LA. The show contained live versions of the weekly recurring shows and spoof bits done by the hosts. On June 9, 2016, SourceFed uploaded a video titled Did Google Manipulate Search for Hillary? , discussing whether or not Google manipulated search results to display Hillary Clinton in an untruthful positive light. This video was uploaded at the tailend of

342-501: A multi-platform franchise following  Ben Lecomte 's 5,000-mile-long swim across the Pacific Ocean from Tokyo to San Francisco in an effort to gain awareness on the state of ocean health from pollution. His six-month journey was available to viewers across multiple platforms, a mid-form video series on Seeker's channels and Discovery GO, short-form social videos, weekly Instagram Stories, weekly TV Swim updates on Discovery channel, and

399-638: A news network. Along with the staple news show ( 20 Minutes or Less ), five additional shows began airing within the first month of the channel's January 2012 launch: Curb Cash , One On One , DeFranco Inc.: Behind the Scenes , Comment Commentary and Bloopers . Curb Cash ended in March 2012. The New Movie Thing Show , a movie review series, and a movie club-style series titled The SourceFed Movie Club were launched in May 2012. Since then, SourceFed has debuted new additions to

456-403: A playground game, claiming the amount would be a world record. SourceFed also made appearances at VidCon in 2014, 2015 and 2016. In April 2014, it was announced that Elliott Morgan and Meg Turney would both be leaving SourceFed by the end of the month. They were the first hosts to ever leave SourceFed , something which would occur frequently after their precedent. Morgan and Turney, like

513-471: A variety of topics. Episodes of the series were presented in a comedic daily newscast format. During his tenure on the series, Bereta was its head writer. Early in its run, SourceFed's news series was titled 20 Minutes or Less , as five news stories would be covered daily throughout separate videos totaling 20 minutes or less. Due to only presenting five stories a day, stories covered on SourceFed often "cross-pollinated", or were influenced by news stories on

570-514: A video from the online outlet SourceFed that went viral this year, and quickly garnered headlines on conservative news sites like Breitbart and InfoWars ." Business Insider replicated the experiment shown in the video and found similar results. The video also drew responses from Google and Donald Trump (the Republican Party 's then-presumptive nominee for President of United States). Google defended its search engine; one representative of

627-645: Is also distributed on YouTube. and the DiscoveryVR app. Addison O'Dea was among the first to create original films for them, including explorations into the origins of voodoo in West Africa and explorations into the Sahara to find ancient Koranic libraries. In May 2018, Seeker launched a new vertical, "Seeker Universe". The channel is dedicated to outer-space content and intended for a millennial audience. In June 2018, Seeker partnered with Discovery to launch "The Swim",

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684-545: The 2012 Democratic National Convention and the 2012 Republican National Convention , and joined journalists during live coverage streamed at the end of each night of the conventions. A public relations representative for YouTube stated “Having awesome partners like Philip DeFranco involved will attract younger viewers and he will have a really fresh take on politics". YouTube's "Election Hub" channels for major news networks only received several hundred views, whilst DeFranco's videos on Election Hub received tens of thousands. It

741-462: The PDS . Discovery Digital Networks ceased to exist in late 2016, as Discovery Communications sold its assets into a new digital media holding company , Group Nine Media . Group Nine therefore merged Thrillist Media Group , NowThis Media , and The Dodo with Discovery's Seeker and SourceFed Studios. Although SourceFed doubled its video views year-over-year, Discovery's CCO Paul Guyardo stated that

798-454: The PDS . SourceFed News stories were also referred to as "white wall" videos. George Watsky 's music was commonly used throughout the series in the background. In addition to daily news coverage, the SourceFed channel produced and uploaded several shows. From May to December 2012, Deadline Hollywood tracked the weekly views of all the original premium channels on YouTube. The channel

855-533: The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. On September 12, 2012, DNews launched on YouTube with three hosts: Trace Dominguez, Anthony Carboni, and Laci Green . On April 19, 2014, it was announced that Tara Long would be joining as a host. Three videos were uploaded every day. The show was rebranded to Seeker on March 1, 2017. In May 2013, Discovery Digital Networks launched the TestTube network, which became

912-561: The Senior Vice President of Phil DeFranco Networks and Merchandise, a newly formed subsidiary of the former, as a result of the move. DeFranco's "sxephil" channel, on which he hosted the PDS , was already signed under the Revision3 network. Revision3 itself was acquired by Discovery Communications in 2012, which was noted by The Verge to be Discovery's "first major play into the expanding web television [or digital media] market." By

969-409: The Senior Vice President of Philip DeFranco Networks and Merchandise as a result of the move. In June 2016, DeFranco made his earliest public clarification that he has "no hands on the creative decisions [made] on [SourceFed]," and while discussing the cancellation of SourceFed in 2017, DeFranco detailed that after selling his DeFranco Creative umbrella to Revision3, he began to have less involvement on

1026-515: The SourceFed fanbase, and according to StatSheep, the channel lost over 20,000 subscribers. DeFranco took to Reddit, stating that the significant drop in subscribers was either due to "an error of that individual stats website or YouTube removing dead accounts." Additionally, in response to requests or demands in favor of removing or firing any hosts, DeFranco stated, "No. I let SourceFed control their own creative." The video has slightly more dislikes than likes. On February 27, 2015, SourceFed hosted

1083-443: The beginning of 2014, Discovery began calling its digital branch by the name Discovery Digital Networks in their company blog. While discussing the dissolution of SourceFed Studios, DeFranco retrospectively detailed that after selling his DeFranco Creative umbrella to Revision3, he began to have less involvement in SourceFed, before having no involvement at all. DeFranco expressed, "for you [long time viewers of SourceFed] who know what

1140-433: The channel in 2012. All but Zaragoza would eventually leave the channel throughout 2014 and 2015. However, these hosts later made guest appearances on the channel after their departures, and Morgan specifically was briefly brought back on the main channel to host The Study . Ross Everett was introduced as the seventh on-camera host, after spending time as a writer for the series. In April 2014, DeFranco announced Everett

1197-426: The channel launched in 2012, YouTube content creator Joe Bereta of Barats and Bereta , actor Elliott Morgan , and comedian Lee Newton , were introduced as the original three hosts of SourceFed. DeFranco, who hand-selected the three, also appeared as a host for the channel's first two weeks. DeFranco also hand-selected a second batch of three hosts (Trisha Hershberger, Meg Turney , and Steve Zaragoza ) who debuted on

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1254-554: The channel's lineup. As additional content was being introduced, the SourceFed crew expanded, adding hosts and editors to its team. In early 2012, the Maxim Hot 100 voting website crashed on multiple occasions. Bereta and Morgan claimed that these crashes coincided with them telling their audience through 20 Minutes or Less to vote for Newton as a write-in candidate. Maxim did not address their claims, but did come out with an article noting that Newton had "list potential". In May, it

1311-504: The channel, before having no involvement at all. During 2013, SourceFed was announced to be a sponsor of that year's VidCon, as well as special guests of the event. The event would be held in August. During the event, the couch featured on Comment Commentary was "eaten" by Sharkzilla, the mascot of Shark Week . DeFranco previously hosted Discovery Channel's Shark Week event. While at VidCon 2013, DeFranco gathered 554 people to play Ninja,

1368-601: The company in August 2016. With Bereta, Hershberger, and Newton's departures in late 2014 and early 2015, new hosts were brought on. On February 24, 2015, Sam Bashor accepted an offer to become an official host on the SourceFed and SourceFedNerd channels. He was previously a writer for the channels and made several appearances in videos. He was also the host for DeFranco's merchandising branch, ForHumanPeoples. Early 2015 would also see YouTube personality Bree Essrig , as well as Australian TV & radio host Maude Garrett join in hosting SourceFed. Early 2016 saw Mike Falzone join

1425-405: The company stated "Google Autocomplete does not favor any candidate or cause. Claims to the contrary simply misunderstand how Autocomplete works." A Snopes fact check on the video rated its claims as "false". Trump stated that if SourceFed's claims were true, "it is a disgrace that Google would do that." SourceFed uploaded a follow-up video, featuring Lieberman responding to the reception that

1482-453: The first five hours of the NowThis rebranding. On July 3, 2017, NowThis Nerd reverted the channel back to SourceFed Nerd and deleted the content made since the rebranding. The SourceFed Nerd channel was left up to serve as an archive of the original content and NowThis Nerd became its own separate channel. SourceFed Studios launched and operated various channels during its existence: In

1539-453: The first six hosts of SourceFed. The channel launched on January 23, 2012. The SourceFed channel found early success in attracting a sizable subscriber base. DeFranco later created a spinoff channel, SourceFedNerd (stylized as SourceFedNERD ), which was announced on May 16, 2013. A teaser trailer was released, promising the debut of the channel on May 20. The New Movie Thing Show , The SourceFed Movie Club , and #TableTalk were moved from

1596-490: The four hosts of SourceFed's primary channel at the time—Ava Gordy, Mike Falzone, Candace Carrizales, and Steven Suptic—released a video addressing the cancellation of SourceFed as well as its SourceFedNerd and People Be Like spinoffs. They also announced the schedule for the channel's final week; a podcast, a Comment Commentary episode, a usual white wall-styled video, and a live-streamed farewell video were announced for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, respectively. At

1653-507: The home of DNews, Laci Green 's Sex+ Channel, and Blow it Up! hosted by Tory Belleci from Mythbusters . In March 2015, Discovery Digital Networks launched Seeker Network, which became the home of Seeker Daily, Seeker Stories, and several affiliate shows that centered around adventure and human interest stories. On May 25, 2016, Discovery Digital Networks rolled out changes to its network lineup. The TestTube channel – which had since been renamed to TestTube News – rebranded to Seeker Daily,

1710-423: The hosts which would leave after them, appeared in other online media promptly after their departures; Morgan would work with Mashable , while Turney would become part of Rooster Teeth 's personnel. In September 2014, Zaragoza and Newton hosted a news story covering various charities' refusal of donations from Reddit , following the then-recent celebrity nude photo leaks . The video received criticism from

1767-477: The main channel as the host of a revised form of #TableTalk , which was brought back to SourceFed's main channel content output. Scully and Garrett both announced their departures from SourceFed in August. Coinciding with their departures, Ava Gordy and Candace Carrizales were introduced as hosts on the main SourceFed channel. The main series on the SourceFed channel was SourceFed News . The series featured 1–2 hosts presenting news stories, and covering

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1824-505: The merger occurred due to a need for "more scale, more brand and more resources." DeFranco clarified on Twitter that he had no involvement with the decision to dissolve SourceFed Studios. On May 4, the SourceFed Nerd channel was rebranded as NowThis Nerd without prior knowledge and against the wishes of the former hosts. This rebranding received backlash from viewers and former hosts. The Nerd channel lost over 20,000 subscribers within

1881-570: The original SourceFed channel to the Nerd channel. The spinoff channel hosted a live version of the #TableTalk series during the YouTube Comedy Week in 2013. The online stream was received well, being successful in terms of both raw viewership, as well as viewer retention. In June 2013, Philip DeFranco sold SourceFed along with the other channels under his DeFranco Creative portfolio to Revision3 . DeFranco also became an executive of Revision3 and

1938-777: The original content was, and what it is now, you know that it's like, it's pretty much a completely different channel—both in content and the people running it." Previously, in June 2016, DeFranco made his earliest public clarification that he has "no hands on the creative decisions [made] on [SourceFed]." On September 19, 2013, the SourceFedNerd channel reached 500,000 subscribers. By 2016, Discovery eventually renamed Revision3 and DeFranco Creative as Seeker and SourceFed Studios, respectively. Additionally, Seeker's website's about page had SourceFed's properties listed under their ownership. SourceFed Studios encapsulated SourceFed and Nerd, as well as

1995-572: The primaries for the 2016 United States presidential election , with Clinton being the Democratic Party 's presumptive nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election . Matt Lieberman, the host for the video, suggested that Google's autofill feature pulls up results for Clinton's crime reform, despite "hillary clinton crime" being a more popular search term than "Hillary Clinton crime reform". Lieberman did emphasize that SourceFed

2052-411: The project culminates with a feature-length documentary later in 2019. In April 2019, Seeker released its new YouTube series "SICK", which looks at how diseases work in the human body. Each episode covers a different disease and brings in researchers and doctors to explain them. In July 2019, Seeker partnered with Discovery on a one-hour television special, Confessions from Space , in celebration of

2109-461: The reason that they subscribed to the channel. SourceFed was one of the most popular YouTube original channels, as the channel earned over 20 million monthly views. Due to its success, SourceFed was among the 30-40% of original channels to be renewed by YouTube in November 2012. On July 14, 2013, the SourceFed channel reached one million subscribers. The Wall Street Journal noted that it

2166-567: The remaining SourceFed Studios YouTube channels. SourceFedNerd was briefly rebranded as NowThis Nerd , but Group Nine reversed this after fan backlash. Although inactive, the SourceFed Studios channels remain online. SourceFed was an idea Philip DeFranco had been considering as an evolution of his own YouTube series, The Philip DeFranco Show ( PDS ). In an interview with Forbes , DeFranco stated that he originally wanted to turn his daily show into several daily segments. He recalled there

2223-568: The text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡): SourceFed SourceFed was a YouTube channel and news website created by Philip DeFranco in January 2012 as part of YouTube's original channel initiative , and was originally produced by James Haffner. The main SourceFed channel mainly focused on popular culture , news, and technology. SourceFed was a part of DeFranco's portfolio of Internet-based media properties, including his own eponymous news YouTube series . That portfolio

2280-430: The time, the SourceFed channel had amassed just over 1.7 million subscribers and 906 million video views in its run. DeFranco clarified on Twitter that he had no involvement with the decision to dissolve SourceFed Studios. The final Nerd and People Be Like videos were released on March 24, 2017. SourceFed's final video was also uploaded, which doubled as the intro for the channel's 6 hour final live stream. When

2337-400: The video received. In late 2016, the newly formed media company Group Nine Media acquired SourceFed Studios's parent company Revision3 (which was renamed as Seeker ) from Discovery Digital Networks. Seeker and SourceFed Studios were merged along with Thrillist , NowThis News , and The Dodo into Group Nine, which then decided to close the SourceFed Studios network. On March 20, 2017,

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2394-497: Was a farewell livestream broadcast on March 24, 2017. Around the time of the closure of SourceFed Studios, the SourceFed channel had accumulated over 1.7 million subscriptions and 900 million video views. SourceFed was an idea Philip DeFranco had been considering as an evolution of his own YouTube series, The Philip DeFranco Show ( PDS ). In an interview with Forbes , DeFranco stated that he originally wanted to turn his daily show into several daily segments. He added that there

2451-429: Was announced that Lee Newton placed 57th on the 2012 Maxim Hot 100 list. In March 2012, Philip DeFranco announced that he would take the SourceFed crew to VidCon 2012 . There, Bereta, Morgan, Newton, and Zaragoza, along with DeFranco, held a Q&A panel and performed. SourceFed hosts Meg Turney and Elliott Morgan, along with Philip DeFranco, presented a series of videos as part of YouTube's "Election Hub" during

2508-507: Was confusion among his audience when this format was tested, convincing DeFranco that he would need to create a new series to not alienate, but grow his audience. The SourceFed YouTube channel was created in April 2011. In late 2011, YouTube began its $ 100 million funding of original or premium content channels . Due to DeFranco's position as a YouTube partner, the website offered him funding for an original channel. The SourceFed channel, based on

2565-469: Was confusion among his audience when this format was tested, convincing DeFranco that he would need to create a new series to not alienate, but grow his audience. Around this time, DeFranco also had plans to create a news network. In late 2011, YouTube began its $ 100 million funding of original or premium content channels . Due to DeFranco's position as a YouTube partner, the website offered him funding for an original channel. The SourceFed channel, based on

2622-543: Was consistently one of the top original channels every week. On May 26, 2012, the SourceFed YouTube channel reached the 100 million video view milestone. On August 1, 2012, SourceFed became the first of the YouTube original channels to reach 500,000 subscribers. In celebration of the event, 20 Minutes or Less uploaded a special video onto SourceFed that featured clips of SourceFed's audience congratulating them and stating

2679-487: Was established in 2015 within a former independent division of Discovery Communications known as Discovery Digital Networks . Seeker produces online video and editorial content for the digital media landscape, with an emphasis on social platforms and YouTube . Seeker was relaunched in May 2016 in an effort by Discovery Digital Networks to reach millennial audiences looking to satisfy their curiosity by immersing themselves in science, technology and culture. The network

2736-637: Was hard to figure out why the simplicity of the idea behind SourceFed was able to receive mass appeal. After winning the Streamy Audience Choice Award for Series of the Year, SourceFed's The New Movie Thing Show was criticized by The Atlantic . The publication wrote "The audience pick for series of the year went to SourceFed, which consists of short clips of people explaining things in loud, fast voices," and "It's not even close to quality programming. Just something goofy to watch online." SourceFed

2793-594: Was initially launched in March 2015, with a focus on exploration and adventure. In October 2016, Seeker was acquired by the newly founded Group Nine Media , along with Thrillist Media Group , NowThis News , The Dodo and SourceFed Studios. This new media group earned a $ 100 Million investment from Discovery Communications , and is under the leadership of former Thrillist CEO Ben Lerer . Seeker's YouTube Channel (also called Seeker; formerly DNews) surpassed more than 4 million YouTube subscribers in August 2019. In 2015, Seeker's program Rituals , with Laura Ling ,

2850-443: Was moved back to his writing position. However, near the end of the month, Everett announced his departure from SourceFed in a Tumblr blog post. Amidst the 2014 departures of Everett, Morgan, and Turney, SourceFed brought on William Haynes , Matt Lieberman, and Reina Scully in March 2014, serving as the de facto replacements for the former. While Haynes and Lieberman stayed on with SourceFed through its cancellation, Scully left

2907-542: Was named DeFranco Creative and later renamed SourceFed Studios when acquired by Discovery Communications ' Revision3 . On March 20, 2017, the cancellation of SourceFed, along with its still-active sister channels, was announced. The closure of the SourceFed Studios network was decided by the newly formed Group Nine Media , led by Discovery Communications , which was formed as a merger between SourceFed Studios and four other networks in October 2016. The final SourceFed video

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2964-619: Was nominated for an Emmy . A Seeker Stories documentary co-produced with the ONE Campaign about energy poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa was honored with a Shorty Award in 2016. Seeker Daily , a short-form news show, partnered with YouTube to cover the 2016 Republican & Democratic Party national conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia . In 2016, Seeker began producing content for virtual reality headsets. Seeker VR content

3021-560: Was nominated for four awards at the 3rd Streamy Awards , winning in the Audience Choice for Series of the Year category. The following year, SourceFed won the award for News and Current Events Series. In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡): Seeker (media company) Seeker (stylized See<er ) is an American digital media network and content publisher based in San Francisco , California. The network

3078-562: Was not accusing Google of any crimes, instead calling the manipulation "deeply unethical and wrong but not illegal." Lieberman also added that there is no evidence to suggest collusion between the Clinton campaign and Google, but went on to claim that "the intention is clear: Google is burying potential searches for terms that could have hurt Hillary Clinton in the primary elections over the past several months." The video attracted considerably more media attention than other SourceFed uploads, as it

3135-452: Was provided by YouTube, as the channel was part of YouTube's original content initiative. DeFranco hand-picked the first six hosts of SourceFed: Joe Bereta , Elliott Morgan , Lee Newton , Steve Zaragoza , Trisha Hershberger , and Meg Turney . Additionally, SourceFed was originally produced by James Haffner. The channel launched as an original channel on January 23, 2012. In 2012, Reuters reported that DeFranco had plans to create

3192-516: Was put down to it being in an 'experimental stage'. Most of the partners of Election Hub, excluding DeFranco, Al Jazeera English and BuzzFeed, struggled to garner 1,000 views of their on-demand content during the RNC. During the videos, Turney predicted that the DNC will not make a difference for young voters. During the conventions, SourceFed uploaded videos explaining them. #PDSLive 2012 Election Night Coverage ,

3249-492: Was referred to in posts by USA Today , The Washington Times , Business Insider , and The Globe and Mail , among other outlets. Shane Dingman, writing for The Globe and Mail opined that "This conspiracy theory post is not typical fare" for SourceFed. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times wrote that the "conspiracy theory [about Google suppressing negative news in search results about Hillary Clinton] began with

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