Marc Scarpa, veteran director and executive producer of live interactive media events, has launched the first of it’s kind social TV network with Comcast Xfinity On Demand, called VidBlogger Nation, that brings popular local YouTube talent into the living room of millions. I caught up with Scarpa on his recent visit to San Francisco where he met with several of his local VidBloggers, including Zennie62, who joined Scarpa in this interview. (See Zennie’s article here: http://bit.ly/2Sv3mhZ)
VidBlogger Nation is shot on location by local video bloggers in 10 key markets, including Philadelphia, New Jersey, New England, Atlanta, South Florida, Michigan, Denver, Portland, Sacramento, and San Francisco. The episodes are short 3-5 minute narrative shorts by unique voices from across the country who share colorful stories of people, places and things in their city from a first-person perspective. The VidBlogger Nation roll-out will initially include three full seasons for each market, with over 240 episodes available so far on Comcast Xfinity On Demand local, and they’re in the process of shooting 120 more.
“We’re using a lot of social platforms in order to engage conversation in and around the content that we’re creating. We’re using Facebook, YouTube and obviously Twitter, in conjunction with distributing the content over Comcast On Demand. So really, what distinguishes us from other types of networks is, we’re not a technology platform, we’re really focused on that conversation between the video bloggers themselves and of course amongst their audience.”
Scarpa says that they look at their audience more as followers and friends than as viewers to the point that the VidBloggers are really involved with the audience on an honest and genuine way.
“Because it’s their voice that’s being carried throughout the network. It’s their points of view, it’s their opinions, stories, and experiences that they’re sharing with that audience, and the audience actually helps them create their content.” via IFTTT