
Discovery Channel Buys Revision3 for $30 Million - protomyth
http://allthingsd.com/20120503/discovery-channel-gets-a-web-video-arm-courtesy-of-revision-3/?mod=tweet
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sp332
Here's a press release: [http://revision3.com/blog/2012/05/03/discovery-
communication...](http://revision3.com/blog/2012/05/03/discovery-
communications-to-acquire-top-digital-video-provider-revision3/) And here's
why Discovery wants them: <http://revision3.com/about>

    
    
        72% 18-34 year olds
        99.6% audience recall for 1 or more sponsor
        56% of Revision3 viewers have purchased a product or service from a show sponsor

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GBond
Kevin Rose has 3 of his company have major exits within months. There has been
a lot of discussion about him in the past because he doesn't fit the mold of a
HN "hacker". Regardless of his methods/role, the results are impressive.

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k-mcgrady
Congrats to Rev3. They've always produced some really good content and a lot
of stuff I've watched as religiously as I would a TV programme.

I think the price is interesting. Especially when you compare it to other
exits, particularly Instagram. AFAIK Rev3 had a decent, proven business model
and have been growing and expanding in different directions (distributing
content from other content producers). We don't know exactly why Instagram was
bought (defensive move, user/photo data) but when you compare the two the
Instagram price seems ridiculous.

(I personally think buying Instagram was a smart move by Facebook and I
understand the price it just seems crazy when you compare the exit of a
company with a proven business model to that of a company with no business
model and no plan for one).

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CoffeeDregs

        > AFAIK Rev3 had a decent, proven business model
    

Definitely and that may have been a problem: the business model was certain
and their valuation could be easily calculated. OTOH, Instagram's business
model is uncertain and their valuation was calculated based on "comps" rather
than on business model performance, leading to a much wider range of
valuations. Add to that the fact Instagram became a leader in a hot market
where Revision3 became an also-ran in a legacy market and their relative
valuations make more sense.

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brandnewlow
Wild to think they might have a bigger exit than Digg.

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debacle
Why is that?

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ojbyrne
For starters,

1\. Diggnation was the flagship and highest rated show for much of rev3's
life.

2\. All of the founders were full-time employees of Digg when they were
working on Rev3. In fact, at least one of them has publicly stated that Rev3
would not exist if it hadn't been for the digg salaries.

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debacle
That's very interesting. I used to use Digg but moved away from it because of
the signal/noise issue. Then after they changed the UI at some point a ton of
people came over to reddit and I remember it was a big deal.

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dusing
Anyone know how much funding they have gotten. I'm happy for them, but it
doesn't seem like a big win.

The thought of TRS or some of their other shows showing up on cable makes me
super happy

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jsprinkles
Do you really think Discovery would sacrifice ratings juggernauts like
_American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior_ , _The Devils Ride_ , or _American Guns_
to air anything Revision3 makes? Yeah, unfortunately, me neither.

Sadly, I'm part of the reason, since I enjoy _Deadliest Catch_.

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trothamel
Discovery owns a lot more than a single channel - they own 13. It's possible
that they could use these programs on Science, or maybe for a late night block
on The Hub (as an Adult Swim competitor), or somewhere else.

(Or else not - it might be valuable to have Internet-only programs.)

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sandieman
Sometimes you get lucky (like instagram) but revision3 hustled to thrive where
many failed in video. Kudos to Louderback and team!!

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IanDrake
Discovery Communications owns a couple strange properties. I was shocked when
I _discovered_ they owned PetFinder.com.

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protomyth
They also own some fairly nasty patents, so they are quite an interesting
company.

example: <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090317/1826164156.shtml>

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jsprinkles
$30 million for Revision3, $1 billion for Instagram. Is there really that much
of a gap in value between these two companies?

I know I followed Rev3 closely because I enjoyed old-school TechTV. I also
know I'm not an Instagram user. Am I the minority, here? Just trying to
understand what's at play here, and what it means for the future.

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brandnewlow
Honestly? No one gives a crap about content. It's not exactly worthless, but
it's been pretty solidly commoditized. Which company do you think had more
content? Revision3 or Instagram? My guess is Instagram had 100x more content
than Rev3.

The way a company like Revision3 gets a big valuation is by having massive
distribution AND a big hit that goes mainstream, much like what Draw with Me
did for OMGPOP. Revision3 never had a crossover hit that the average Joe
watched. They stayed niche, and $30m is maybe as much as they could get for
that audience and distribution footprint.

Meanwhile Instagram had MASSIVE distribution, in the millions, AND was
generating content at an epic clip. No one piece of Instagram content might be
as "sticky" or engaging as a single piece of Revision3 content, but wouldn't
you want to have all those photos instead of a bunch of shows watched by a
small but fervent audience?

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protomyth
Given all the articles about people being pretty unhappy with not being able
to watch Game of Thrones on HBO, I don't think content is commoditized. I also
don't think a picture on Instagram is equivalent to an episode of GoT.

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brandnewlow
Game of Thrones is world-class Content with a capital "C". Revision3 had
nothing so valuable or desired. That was my point. Their content never really
escaped the commodity zone.

