The newly launched Icebox.com is an entirely new and refreshing breed of online entertainment company: one with no advertising, no offices, no overhead, no Web site (yet) and only two full-time employees.
But it does have plenty of marketable content.
Five founders of the original online entertainment company, now bankrupt, announced last week that they had bought the rights to the Icebox content library.
The company’s former head of business and creative affairs, Tal Vigderson, and its former head of business development, Scott Rupp, have taken the helm and are working out of their homes.
“Think of Apple Computer in the early days,” Vigderson quipped.
Three of the original Icebox founders John Collier, former co-executive producer of “King of the Hill;” Howard Gordon, former executive producer of “The X-Files;” and Rob LaZebnik, former co-executive producer of “The Simpsons” are contributing their time “as they are able,” according to Vigderson.
Their plan is to syndicate the vast Icebox content library online and offline and spend money on original content production only when funding from future partners is in place.
When it shut its doors in February, the provider of online movies and cartoons had only been in operation about 14 months, but had developed a loyal following.
While Icebox had minor hits with online programming like “Mr. Wong” and “Zombie College,” it also developed a nasty cash-burn rate. Icebox spent $15 million of investors’ cash in about a year, mostly on in-house Web infrastructure and production. At the same time, revenues from advertising were dwindling.
“There was an audience for the stuff we were doing, but we were just starting to figure out how to turn that audience into revenue,” Vigderson said. “Unfortunately, we had a company that required a lot of money. Without a huge infusion of venture capital, we couldn’t continue.”
Sounds like many dot-com epitaphs, but Icebox stood out from online entertainment companies for its unrivaled roster of creative talent.
Collier, Gordon and LaZebnik attracted dozens of other industry veterans, who were lured by the creative freedom that the Web site promised.
The censor-free environment let them create such characters as a gay Jewish duck, a foul-mouthed Asian houseboy, an alcoholic Abraham Lincoln and the long-lost brothers of Jesus: Marty, Vinnie and Chuck.
Icebox was also unique for its mission to develop content that could ultimately find its way to the more lucrative offline arena of television and movies. The idea was to offer the site as an alternative to the TV pilot process, a place where writers could test their edgier material out on low budgets.
The re-launched Icebox shares that mission, and almost all of the former writers have agreed to step in the Icebox once again.
“Icebox offers the writers so much freedom and no interference from studios,” Vigderson said. “Our development methods are an alternative to the cumbersome studio method.”
This time around, the company will have no in-house Web infrastructure or production facilities. Those operations will be outsourced, saving the company piles of cash.
“We don’t believe it had to close because it failed,” Vigderson said. “It was because of the market conditions and our inability to raise money. We hit all of our targets in terms of revenue from licensing, syndicating and signing up writers.”
The re-launched Icebox has already inked a syndication deal with San Francisco-based Mondo Media, an online distribution network. Besides that, the five former founders have been holding meetings “all over town” with potential television and studio partners, Vigderson said.
In order to buy the Icebox assets at the recent auction, Vigderson and Rupp raised an undisclosed amount of money from private investors.
Icebox received its initial backing from eCompanies, the Santa Monica incubator founded by Jake Winebaum and Sky Dayton.
New Perspective in L.A.
Be Here Corp. is proving that you don’t need extra bandwidth to have a stunning visual experience online.
The startup, which recently moved its headquarters from Silicon Valley to L.A., produces technology for broadcasting 360-degree camera views on the Web.
Applications run the gamut from Web uses to building security systems to new forms of interactive television.
Last week, professional basketball fans visiting NBA.com could check out the Sacramento Kings-Dallas Mavericks game using Be Here’s streaming video technology.
For that event, Be Here’s camera was installed courtside on the scorer’s table. The video footage captured by the lens was processed in real time with Be Here’s imaging software and then streamed to the Net.
The technology allows users to pan, tilt and zoom in on whatever is in camera view.
Besides the NBA, parties with which Be Here has inked deals recently include NBC, CBS and Fox. Those networks have all used Be Here to broadcast political conventions and other sports events.
Be Here is partially backed by Intel Corp., which has been working with the company to develop the software needed to stream images over the Net.
In three rounds of financing, Be Here has raised $17.5 million. Besides Intel, the company has attracted investments from Eastman Kodak Co., Enterprise Partners and Wasserstein Adelson Ventures.
Several companies are vying for revenue in the space, including Internet Pictures Corp. and RemoteReality Corp.
But Be Here CEO Andrew Thau said that his firm’s camera lenses and software system are unique because they allow most cameras to take moving as opposed to still 360-degree pictures.
Be Here was founded in 1996 by computer scientist and entrepreneur Ted Driscoll, who developed the company’s patented Navigable Visual Content (NVC) technology.
Last year, Be Here hooked Thau, a former Fox Sports International exec, as its new CEO. Thau was responsible for moving the company’s headquarters to L.A., where he said he now hopes to expand the startup’s ties to the entertainment industry.
The company has about 35 employees here and in Silicon Valley, where a workforce focuses just on research and development.
The company would not disclose its revenues or other financial results.
Staff reporter Hans Ibold can be reached by phone at (323) 549-5225 ext. 230 or at [email protected].
