Lynnwood Bibbens, CEO of ReachTV, joins Cheddar News to discuss its new partnership with PlayersTV and expanding content in airports.

Between Bells

ReachTV and PlayersTV Announce Distribution Deal

Welcome back to Between Bells Reach Tv distribution network based in high traffic areas like airports and hotels is making a seven figure investment in sports centric streaming outlet players Tv. The landmark deal brings together two innovative black run media companies and will extend the reach of players Tv, which bills itself as the first athlete lifestyle network joining us now discusses linwood by been Ceo of Reach. Tv linwood. Welcome to the show. Congratulations on this deal. The seven figure investment is huge for both companies. Why was players tv the best to partner with? Well, I mean, first, thank you for having me on. Um second, uh, it was very easy to, to for us to make the investment when you look at how many players and the fact that the athletes are driving um from an influencer standpoint or driving revenue for brands. Um, it was an easy decision plus, you know, as, as, as we look around the world, you know, we saw things that um we saw that the athlete lifestyle um short form, long form um stories around these athletes and those telling those stories was the most engaging story outside of them actually playing the sport. So we're really excited about the partnership and also partnering with the founders of players, Tv. Darrin Guidry New Ceo Angela. I mean, we're just excited about their team, not only just the players, but their team original content. Hold on. How will this partnership expand players Tv in terms of reach and of course that also important content. Well, we will be distributing players tv throughout all of our airports also in the hotel rooms and other deals that were expanding about we'll be investing not only into players Tv but also into original content. And we'll be bringing our entire sales team partnerships and everything. Two players Tv as well. Players tv like we mentioned combined sports, culture, lifestyle. What's the benefits of giving your consumers access to this kind of sports content, linwood. I mean, people love watching stories about people they know and when it comes to athletes, you're talking about athletes today, admire look up to Emily. Um so when you start to have content that that does that and also lets you see athletes in a different light, you know, it's amazing. You know, it doesn't matter if you like sports or not. My wife doesn't like sports or you know, you know, you know, women who don't love all the sports, everybody loves storytelling. So when you tell great stories around athletes and let them be themselves, it's engaging. I could not agree more. Both reach Tv and players Tvr black run media companies. What's the cultural importance here? Well, I think the cultural importance is something that we talked about. I've talked about many times as collaboration, you know, and you know, just to be blunt coming in a black history month, a lot of times we it was we always felt there was one seat at the table versus you know, six or seven. So we were always fighting for one seat Now, what we're doing is collaborating and building our own tables and building our own opportunities. And I think this is a certain step to those types of collaborations, Linwood. What's your take on the future of this travel media space? Like you mentioned, you know, a lot of the concept is seen at airports have actually seen it at airports. Are you worried at all about COVID-19 and the variant cases we're hearing about? I think we did that. So we went to zero people traveling and I think right now, which is a couple of years in and people are at the point now we're gonna come, we're gonna travel. Is it gonna be different? Yes. Um we're gonna we're gonna have some cautions. We have some masks gonna have certain things here and there, but as you see, there are certain parts of the world, they're already starting to open up without anything. And we're seeing an increase in bookings, we're seeing an increase in international travel and people are just going to engage differently. And our tech allows you to have, our tech is from a cloud based television network where we can program down to the screen. So we've changed with it so we can allow you to have something that's very unique if you're in new york versus if you're in Miami versus you're in Atlanta last year reached tv scored a new deal to Air NFL games at our airports, that is a big deal. What type of engagement have you seen since that launch? Well, I mean I took a change the from from, we'll go one step back when we acquired the CNN airport gate screens. That one gave everybody the understanding that we were at gates, bars, restaurants, lounges, newsstands and then adding the NFL just gave us that live sports component. And once you go live sports people, you know, we came up to the grown up table where we're a live television network and with the amount of sports, live sports and then with players tv you're really looking at a place where your higher CPM and you're, you know, that's where brands want to be around. So we're excited about where we're going and we're, you know, we're not done yet linwood. Speaking of the NFL, I have to ask who is your pick to win the Super Bowl? Oh boy. I mean normally I don't pick, but you know, living bicoastal for almost 20 years. I think I'm, I'm a little part of me is pulling for the RAMs for the for the RAMs this week just because it's L. A. And it's in L. A. And I'll be there and I just, you know, I gotta root for the home team. All right, I get that. I get that. Well, we hope you come back to discuss linwood bib and ceo of reach. Tv. Congratulations again on this partnership