How Dropout Cracked Internet Comedy

Streaming wars have produced expensive, consolidated services that resemble costly cable bundles and create decision paralysis from endless catalogs. Password-sharing has declined, leading to churn from free trials and surprise renewals. Dropout, formerly CollegeHumor, was acquired for $0 and built into a comedy streaming platform by steering away from venture-capital and big-media playbooks. The approach emphasizes making things people love, evolving comedy for online audiences, and constructing a cinematic universe of interconnected content. The platform’s strategy also includes thinking about long-term talent pathways and whether it can function as a feeder for mainstream opportunities like Saturday Night Live.

"We are living through an era of pretty remarkable media consolidation-the streaming wars started out scrappy, and they have landed in this place where we now have this constellation of increasingly expensive apps and media catalogs. It's a kind of an on-demand reconstruction of the old-school-cable package, but for arguably more money. The streamers themselves-they've become pretty hard to root for. Gone are the days of password-sharing, which means that people can find themselves in this constant rotation of tracking down individual shows, signing up for the free trial, bingeing, and then waking up in a cold sweat three months later, realizing that you're still paying for Paramount+."

"Sam Reich: I'm an open book. Charlie Warzel: Oh, very exciting. Reich: I am a creased-open, dusty, worn library book with too many dog-eared pages."

"How do you build a streaming service from scratch? On this week's Galaxy Brain, Charlie Warzel speaks with Sam Reich, the CEO of Dropout, a comedy streaming platform that's found success eschewing the growth-at-all-costs model of the mega streamers. The two discuss the pre-YouTube days of online video and how Reich acquired Dropout, formerly known as the internet site CollegeHumor, for $0. They talk about how comedy has evolved online, how to build a cinematic universe of content, and whether Reich sees Dropout as a feeder for places like Saturday Night Live. Reich shares his philosophies on how to make things that people love and why he steers away from the venture-capital and big-media playbooks."

Read at The Atlantic