Interview with Elliot Rutstein on Shout Factory TV

This is Elliot Rutstein with Shelfactory TV and

you're listening to GeekCast Radio Network. Hello

and welcome to Geetcast Radio. I am your host

TF2 and Mike and this is a brand new interview

here on GCR, the flagship podcast of the Geetcast

Radio Network. There was a huge announcement

earlier from one of our favorite companies. Today

I have on the line with me, now you'll have to

forgive me good sir because I have no idea how

to say your last name, but we have Elliot Rustenstein.

I've gotten all kinds of pronunciations over

the years, so no worries. So we have Elliot from

Shout Factory, and he is, you are the web developer

content creator? Yeah, you could say that. My

business card reads Director of Web and Digital

Development, whatever that might mean at this

point. Yeah, I mean I guess the one -liner is

I oversee a lot of project management for our

digital platform So our website online store

and now shout factory TV Awesome. Awesome. How

long have you been with shout factory? I've been

here probably a little over seven years now.

Oh Wow. Yeah, so the time has flown by definitely

but it's it's been a lot of fun Yeah, lots of

company baseball games and then that amount of

time Yes, sorry. Sorry. I I remember that was

one of the first skits Brian Ward did on on your

weekly show We're actually we're trying to get

the softball team back together pretty soon,

so we'll see maybe we'll we'll get another appearance

in there All right, so What I don't have I know

I should have the information in front of me,

but I don't When did Shout Factory TV launch?

So we launched just earlier this month. I believe

it was about February 5th What is the What made

you guys want to because When everyone thinks

of shout factory they think of DVDs and blu -rays

and all that kind of stuff I know shout factory

has done some music releases in a very limited

scope but mainly for for us that you know grew

up in the 80s and 90s and you know even you know

those classic you know film and horror fans and

comedies and all that stuff you know we know

shout factory as a dvd company a dvd production

company so what made shout factory say hey we're

going to hit the streaming and we're going to

get you know all this digital content out to

our our fans sure uh well it's partly Because

of that impression, when I started seven years

ago, that's pretty much exclusively what we were.

Just a DVD, and I'm not even sure at that point

if we were doing Blu -ray. Well, since then,

yeah. Since then, yeah. So we've grown a place

in the market with that kind of side. And after

a while, we've... Over the years, we've been

embracing digital in different ways. We've been

providing digital content for download and streaming

on different platforms. And we've kind of just

came together with a collaborative idea that

we wanted to bring that same passion and care

we put into DVD and Blu -ray releases and apply

that to the digital world. So instead of being

in fear of digital as something that's inevitably

where media is heading, We're looking to embrace

it, make sure we're firmly planted in the 21st

century, and find ways where, you know, honestly,

the DVD and Blu -ray business for us is still

going very strong, and... Oh, absolutely. Yeah,

and we're very proud of that. We're looking for

ways to kind of merge the two, you know. We can

exist with feed in both worlds and have them

live side by side. So, yeah. And not everybody...

that is a fan of the company not everyone can

can get you know a complete series set of whatever

their favorite show might be right off the bat

because obvious you know you take the the giant

redhead the giant red ranger everyone's gonna

yeah not everyone's gonna be able to buy that

so it would be nice to you know now that you

guys have gone digital everyone go check out

Of course, after you listen to this, go check

out shoutfactorytv .com. The service is free.

What? How did this? Was there ever a notion of

should we have people sign up and pay for this

like Netflix or do we want there is the planning

behind all that? Yeah, we definitely put a lot

of thought into how we wanted to position the

platform. And we came together on agreement that

really. We wanted the platform to be free. We

wanted to be accessible to everyone. So it is

ad supported. That's the compromise you often

get with a free video streaming service. But

yeah, we didn't want too many roadblocks. So

there's no subscription or signup required. We

wanted to make sure whoever wanted access was

able to. And like you said, There are properties

out there where sometimes, you know, unfortunately,

whether it's contractually or financially, it

doesn't work to put out a complete series or

really give it that kind of effort. This is now

a platform which we can use as another alternative

to at least get content out to fans. And the

other cool thing I think, and I'll ask you this

in a minute about future content of the service,

but... Another cool thing I think is you get

some of these DVD sets that you guys have put

out three, four, five years ago that may not

be easily found anymore because they've gone

out of print or whatever. I would only assume

that you guys have deals in place with companies

like Hasbro or... Hasbro is the only one I can

think of off the top of my head, but I'm sure

you guys would eventually put deals in place

with Hasbro and say, hey, we released this DVD

set of your product, but we're no longer printing

it. Can we strike a deal to get it on Shout Factory

TV? The funny thing about when you guys launched,

the absolute comedic thing about this is over

the last month and a half, two months, Netflix

has been slowly threatening its users that, oh

my god, Jim and the Holograms is leaving February

17th, oh my god, it's now leaving this date,

or this date, or this date, and same thing with

My Little Pony, honestly, most of the Transformers

stuff is no longer on Netflix, so my question

is, are we gonna see that content roll over to

your old site, or? So that's something you can't

talk about or I don't know I I will talk about

as much as I can And I'll first say in a very

broad sense. We definitely are going back to

companies that we've licensed content for for

physical releases and Sometimes the contract

includes digital rights to begin with and for

a lot of that We're you know, it's either on

shout TV right now or we have a plan to roll

that out in the near future But we definitely

are always in further negotiations to see what

we can get. As far as the content you named,

a lot of the Hasbro properties, those specifically,

we never did receive digital rights. I believe

those are all retained by Hasbro. But we're definitely

interested and we're in open talks to see what

possibilities there are in the future. I would

say right now, it's not something that you can

jump on shoutfactorytv .com and find, but never

say never. We're actively looking out there for

things. Guys, like I said, if you go over to

their website here, you can find their original

series that they've put on YouTube and stuff,

stuff like Your Weekly Shoutout with Brian Ward.

You know stuff like why we love it stuff like

Bushido man the web series They even have a live

stream archive. So if any of you wanted to see

the Alright the power morphicon Yeah from last

year. We have that stream archived up there.

I mean, yeah part another idea behind this was

to basically gather things together in one place.

So we have our YouTube channel, which is great,

and we have a lot of good original content that's

going on there. And we have our channel on Hulu

with content. We have a lot of content in different

places out there in the streaming world. And

Shell Factory TV is also a place to gather that

together. So you can come to one site and kind

of find everything that we want to showcase.

Absolutely. I know a buddy of mine, Steve Megatron,

who's a huge Weird Al fan. Steve, you can go

over to their site right now and watch episodes

of the Weird Al show. They've got home movies,

they've got reboot, both seasons, Father Knows

Best. It's just an amazing piece of work that

you guys are creating here because I think that

the... possibilities are endless, honestly. Yeah,

thank you. I mean, we do, too. We certainly hope

so. And we hope that the content that we're putting

up here is a similar reflection of, you know,

who Shout Factory is as a company, the image

that we've built over the years with our physical

releases. It's not going to be a complete mirror

as far as if we put it out on DVD, will it be

on Shout Factory TV? There's going to be content

on one and not the other in both sides. But we

definitely want to keep that kind of cult feel,

that classic television feel, a lot of stand

-up comedy specials and music specials, original

content like you were talking about. So we're

definitely looking to keep it both broad but

also at the same time under that shout umbrella.

Absolutely. What went into the planning and the

choices for the content that's currently on the

site? I've already listed numerous shows that

are on here, but what was What was the stages?

What was the meeting like when everyone sat down

and said, well, this is what we'd like to put

on here, and this is what we can put on here.

How did that go about getting you guys choosing

what was actually going to launch with the new

platform? Sure. At launch, I mean, we knew to

get things out the door, we would first look

at, OK, what do we have the rights to put up

there? uh... and that obviously there is another

list of things that we think we can get the rights

to and then there's a look at the content where

you know it would be really great if we could

get the right to look into that uh... but a lot

of what's up there right now we have the right

to we have the assets available so we started

working on that to ingest them uh... for youth

on shout tv and Like I said, we wanted to make

sure we had really strong tent poles out the

door. So Mystery Science Theater is a big part

of the site. You know, you've mentioned home

movies, classic television. We have a lot of

classic films that we recently acquired and we

got digital rights to. So we have titles like

Stagecoach and Death of a Salesman. So we're

really trying to see what's available to us at

the moment, make sure that gets passed on. to

our fans and that is available to them on the

platform. But yeah, we definitely have ongoing

meetings as far as new acquisitions, what we

want to feature, where the current rollout is

going to be basically a monthly or semi -monthly

rollout of new content. So coming up actually

on March 2nd, we'll have new titles up there

as well. So we're always looking to see, OK,

what can we get in next month? What can we put

on the calendar several months down the road?

And we're managing that programming calendar

as best as we can. And we're very excited with

some of the stuff that's already slated for coming

months. Awesome. Now, with the stuff that you're

going to be adding in, does that mean, like what

Netflix does, does that mean some of the content

that's already here is going to go away? So to

make room for the new content or how's that gonna

work? Um, I wouldn't say it's necessary to make

room for the new content and as a standard practice

We're not going to be taking content down all

the time There will be times where we might get

limited rights to put something up for say a

one month period as a very specific promotion

so That might happen where we'll put something

up at the beginning of the month and we'll let

everyone know from the start This is up for four

weeks. This is up for two weeks, two months,

whatever it might be, if that's the case. So

that there won't be surprises of things disappearing

off the platform. But like I said, the majority

of the content we're looking to keep up there

so that you can know what to expect and find

what you're looking for. Absolutely. I already,

outside of stuff like reboot and some of the

other comedy TV, I saw you guys have Webster

up there as well. As we're talking about this,

I'm going through and making sure I can hit on

different things that I know people are going

to be interested. You guys have two Steve Martin

comedy specials on here, Wild and Crazy Guy and

Comedy is Not Pretty. I cannot wait to watch

Wild and Crazy Guy. I have not seen that in so

long. They are fantastic. And I will say we have

a few other Steve Martin specials that we're

planning to add to the system shortly. So you

can expect more of that. Sweet Now I haven't

really tested out like I haven't had a chance

yet to watch Something on here. How does that

all work? Does it is it just Because I noticed

when I clicked on you guys all I actually have

on here Kevin Smith some automations when I clicked

on it It had a hulu thing at the bottom of it.

So how is the the the video player cut? Talk

about that aspect of it as far as where you guys

are getting the content from to put on here.

So, yeah, the idea behind Shout Factory TV at

a very top level is that it's player agnostic

and we actually have several different players

that feed it. One of them is a version of the

Hulu player that we've licensed from them. So

basically content that we either already had

up on our Hulu channel or are continuing to put

up there. That's now considered, you know, watching

shell factory TV content on Hulu. We're using

that Hulu player and embedding it on our site.

So it's a mutually beneficial relationship there.

And in places where we can't use the Hulu player

or there are reasons why we might want to use

a different player, say, for instance, you know,

if you're watching on your phone, on mobile.

or if you're a fan of ours up in Canada and you're

watching there, then you'll have a different

player come in in its place and present content.

So the actual experience from a user side should

be pretty seamless. But yeah, if you're noticing

the slight different aesthetic in buttons, things

like that, there will be a few different players

that'll come in and out depending on what you're

watching, where you're watching. uh... you know

all of all of that they mentioned uh... canada

is is shot factory tv worldwide or is it just

north america uh... right now it's north america

and that mostly have to do with uh... a lot of

our you know right restrictions that we have

from a contract And as far as Canada goes, we

definitely want to present as much content up

there as we can. There are a few titles where

we don't have Canadian rights. And so in those

instances, you may watch a piece of content and

get a notice from the player that says, this

content is not available on your device. That's

likely what that is. And we're working to put

up more information on the site that kind of

calls out. Exactly what you can expect to work

in different places so that there's no confusion

But yeah, ideally we want it to work, you know

in as many places as possible Absolutely My main

question about Canada is I know that certain

like again, it's I'm sorry to keep referencing

Netflix, but it's the one I use all the time.

It's the one I pay for, so. With Netflix, I know

some of my Canadian friends have said, oh, you

guys get tons more stuff than what we get, or

sometimes somebody will say, oh, well, this show's

on Netflix Canada, but yet it's not here on Netflix

US. Is all of the content on ShoutFactoryTV .com

the same in both countries, or? Well, like I

said, everything that we put up will be available

in the US and most of what we put up will be

available in Canada. But there will be that slight

gap depending property to property on what we

have the rights to show in other countries. Right.

Absolutely. What's the plan going forward for

the... Because like we already said, it can only

grow exponentially, but what are some of the

plans coming up for you guys? Yeah, so right

now, in addition to shoutfactorytv .com, where

you can access it either on a desktop or mobile

browser, we also have an app up on Roku. We launched

that at the same time. So you can find us there.

And our plans at the moment are kind of twofold,

one of which is... to really expand our reach

onto other platforms and develop shout factory

tv apps to be used on other devices and other

app marketplaces so we're we're right now in

the stages of working out you know what will

be launched when it'll be launched we definitely

have a lot of things going on behind the scenes

on that side and on the the other side of it

is the content itself so we were actively Reaching

out to different companies seeing what we can

acquire for Shout Factory TV. We're hoping now

that it's launched and a lot of people are able

to get their hands on it, play around with it,

that we'll get some ideas thrown our way. We

have a general support inbox that we've set up

through the site where we've gotten great recommendations

from fans already. saying it would be great if

you could put up X or Y or Z. All those kinds

of things we're looking into and we're just as

excited too. Like you said, there are a lot of

ways that this can grow and we'll see it through

as much as we can in the coming months and definitely

out into the future. Absolutely. Work on that

Hasbro deal. Oh yeah. We're doing our best there,

certainly. Right. Now, I know convention season

is already kind of, it isn't fully kicked in,

but it's coming. When you guys go to conventions

this year, are the streaming events going to

be available live on Shout Factory TV, or are

they gonna be live on YouTube and then they'll

be placed on Shout Factory TV after the fact?

So that is one of our plans is to use show factory

TV as that live environment. So like I said,

we have a few different players that we can go

to. We might have a YouTube player on show factory

TV streaming it, or it could be a different player

if we use a different platform. But that kind

of gives us that freedom and flexibility. So

whether we're down at BotCon or if we're down

at Comic Con and we're presenting any live content

or a live stream event. Basically, you can know

that you'll find it at shoutfactorytv .com going

forward. And like I said, the actual player or

how it will be presented to you, we'll work on

behind the scenes, but that at least gives everyone

a clear message on one place to go to find that

event. And when we can, we would love to archive

and put those live streams up on Shout TV after

the fact to keep them up there. So yeah, that's

all certainly part of the plan. Absolutely, absolutely.

All right. Is there anything else you want to

bring up about the site or anything you want

the fans to know about for ShoutfactoryTV .com?

I would say so March is right around the corner

and we're planning on... Yeah, give us a preview.

I can give you guys a little preview of what

we have planned for that content. One of the

things we're doing is we're going to be featuring

films from our Warner Herzog collection which

is a blu -ray set we put out last year and So

you'll see a lot of those go up on the site shortly

we're also going to be starting a monthly promotion

around Jerry Anderson and So right now he's not

necessarily a household name But he was the showrunner

behind a lot of shows where he used what he called

super marionation And the most popular was Thunderbirds.

And we recently have licensed Thunderbirds, Stingray,

Fireball XL5. There's a whole list of them. We've

been rolling out DVD complete series sets of

them. So we're going to use Shout Factory TV

as a way to promote a lot of content from those

properties. So like I said earlier, to help physical

and digital go hand in hand and work together.

uh... to one promote the other so a lot of that

you'll start seeing uh... in march and uh...

what else can i say show factory tv we just set

up a count uh... for it on both facebook and

twitter in addition to the general show factory

account so definitely check it out there i would

say for programming and platform update and if

nothing else on march second when we roll out

uh... all the march content Come back to the

site on Monday and have a look. Awesome. So when

you guys roll out content, it's not going to

be like over the month's period. You're going

to roll out all that month's content on one day.

So that's one thing we're currently kind of filling

out the best way to do that. I would say in general,

most of the content is going to go up the very

beginning of the month. There might be some special

featured content that we put up halfway through

the month. But yeah, as a general guide, I would

at the very least come back, you know, the beginning

of every month to see what's new and what's featured.

Awesome. Very cool. Very cool. Yeah. No, I can't

wait to really dig into this thing, especially,

like I said, that Steve Martin special. Now that

I saw it's on here, I can't wait to watch that

again. Excellent. I'm glad to hear that. Absolutely.

There is a ton of stuff on ShotfactoryTV .com,

folks. There's a ton of stuff that they're working

on and that's coming for them. Go check them

out. Give it a try. It's free. It's not like,

you know, like Elliott said at the beginning

of the interview, you don't have to sign up for

anything. You just go to the website. You click

on a program. Click play and there you go. Yep.

Absolutely. So I'd like to thank Elliott for

taking the time to be here today on GeekCast

Radio. Do you guys have a slogan for the website

yet? We've got changing the channel up there

right now. We're very excited to have that ability

in the digital age to change what a channel is

and that whole impression. Definitely come by

shellfactorytv .com and check us out. Absolutely.

Alright folks, I will catch you next time here

on geek cast radio coming up We've got a special

little mini arc of the podcast coming up episodes

81 to 86 is gonna be something we've never done

before We're going to talk about a certain sports

entertainment company. So that's coming up Unleash

the geek in you and we will catch you next time

Mr. Martin! Mr. Martin! Mr. Martin! Mr. Martin!

Mr. Martin! Mr. Martin! Mr. Martin! Sure. Here

you are. Thank you. An Aspen Film Society production.

Oh boy, later rivals. Gosh, this is starting

to go over. I like this. Wow, look at this audience.

Oh, there's my mom and dad. I always did take

after my mom. And look at that guy. Doesn't he

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not into that one -night thing. I think a person

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a minute. Wait, I've never been to Duluth. I

don't know this woman. I mean, what makes you

think that baby's mine? You've just listened

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