AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Chive Media Group, the multiplatform digital media and digital-out-of-home company whose flagship brands include theCHIVE and CHIVE TV, today announced the launch of Atmosphere, a first-of-its-kind OTT streaming portal featuring audio-optional, owned and operated ambient TV channels for homes and businesses.
Currently featuring five, family-friendly channels (with more to launch in the coming weeks) that appeal to a wide variety of viewer interests and environments including Chive TV, Happy TV, Motiv8 TV, Escape TV and Deep Sky TV -- Atmosphere is updated regularly and is available free to stream on Apple TV, Roku, Android TV and Amazon Fire. The service sits under the newly formed umbrella company Rarefied Atmosphere, Inc.
“Atmosphere was conceived to solve for audio-free TV programming in the third space. Eighty-one percent of the U.S. population lives in urban areas and people are exposed to screens many times throughout their day,” said Leo Resig, co-founder and CEO of Chive Media Group who co-created Atmosphere along with brother and co-founder John Resig. “Businesses instinctually tune their TVs to traditional cable programming that requires audio to be enjoyed, but they’re all muted with closed captions which is a poor customer experience. We knew there was a huge opening to create an alternative content option for TV that was still entertaining, both in retail and at home.”
The launch of Atmosphere.TV comes at a time when an estimated 61% of young adults in the U.S. watch mainly OTT streaming TV, according to Pew Research Center, and 70 million U.S. households have a connected TV streaming device. Atmosphere’s flagship channel, Chive TV, has content distribution partnerships with Royal Caribbean cruise ships, table-ordering tablet Ziosk, GSTV and includes over 400,000 screens in over 26,000 restaurants, bars and other retail establishments -- currently reaching 230 million people in the U.S. each month and representing a vast majority of the total addressable market for advertisers.
“Atmosphere does for business what Sling TV and PlayStation Vue did for consumers," said Luke Bouma, owner of Cord Cutters News. “With Atmosphere, businesses can join the cord-cutting revolution and save hundreds of dollars every year compared to a traditional cable TV package. This allows them to invest that money back into growing their company."
“While other publishers are struggling to find success by adding new subscription models or launching an ecommerce site, we've created an entirely new category of ambient TV that addresses a massive gap in the place-based DOOH space with a content-first approach. This is the Netflix for Out-of-Home,” added John Resig.
For more information, visit www.atmosphere.tv.
About Atmosphere Inc.
Atmosphere is a first-of-its-kind OTT streaming portal containing original, owned and operated ambient TV channels. The platform and business was incubated under Chive Media Group and has been spun off into its own entity, Rarefied Atmosphere, Inc. The AVOD/SVOD service aims to fill the void in a world where video content is ever present, but no one has addressed the need for TV programming that doesn't require audio to be enjoyed. A content-first Digital Signage feature is also available for businesses.
About Chive Media Group
Chive Media Group is a multiplatform digital media and DOOH company whose flagship brands include theCHIVE and CHIVE TV. Home to the world’s funniest photo galleries and most engaging viral videos, theCHIVE’s properties reach more than 50 million people each month. CHIVE TV’s owned-and-operated OTT channel brings humorous, audio-less video content to more than 27,000 screens in 3,300 restaurants, bars and other retail establishments. CTV’s content exhibition partners extend that presence to an aggregate reach of 26,000 locations, 410,000 screens and over 230M people in the U.S. For more information, visit www.atmosphere.tv.
