On today’s episode of Variety‘s “Strictly Business” podcast, Radial Entertainment CEO Jeff Shultz explains why he’s shopping for content libraries now that the Pluto TV and Paramount alum has taken the reins of the TV and film venture backed by OakTree Capital Management. Radial was formed last year through OakTree’s combination of FilmRise and Shout Studios.
Shultz joined the company in January after a decade with Paramount and Pluto TV, the FAST channel pioneer. His range of experience, from startups to one of Hollywood’s biggest studios, is coalescing at Radial Entertainment where he sees enormous potential for growth amid the radical disruption across the global content eco-system.
“Radial is the largest independent catalogue of film and television in the industry. So that’s 70,000 films and shows, classic TV, massive factual and reality catalogs, deep film catalogue and then major new films,” Shultz says. “And by independent I mean we’re not a studio, we’re not a division of a conglomerate. We’re truly an independent player with integrated distribution. So we operate a diversified distribution portfolio, distribute through AVOD, VOD, broadcast, cable, transactional, even physical, theatrical, international. We operate a portfolio of hundreds of fast channels and generate directly billions of streaming hours annually. And then the third part is integrated capital. OakTree is a $200 billion-plus alternative asset manager and is our strategic partner in growing the business.”
“Strictly Business” is Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. (Please click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes debut every Wednesday and can be downloaded at Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.
