Commentary

Is StyleHaul Blushing? RTL Pays $107 Million For YouTube MCN

Somebody at StyleHaul just tweeted:  “Dance party underway at StyleHaul offices. Here’s why” and followed it up with announcing that European giant media company RTL just acquired the controlling stake in the YouTube multichannel network.

The Hollywood Reporter put the value of StyleHaul deal at $107 million and values the company at $150 million. RTL, which says it will plunk down $20 million to help StyleHaul's expansion, already owned a little less than 25% and now owns about 93%, with options to acquire more.

The deal has been simmering for several days, and probably really months -- so really, StyleHaul has probably been partying for awhile.

RTL too. CEO and founder Stephanie Horbaczweski started StyleHaul in 2011, with Allen and Aaron DeBevoise, the same fine folks who gave YouTube Machinima. In 2013, when I spoke to her, there were 1,400 StyleHaul channels with 48 million unique views. Now there are 4,900 YouTube channels; the sites have attracted 17 billion views, and have 199 million subscribers. StyleHaul says its revenues will triple this year over last year.

A lot of those views come from teenage girls and young women; StyleHaul draws them in like a magnet, although officially, its target demographic is more like 18-34.

Peter Csathy, CEO of Manatt Digital Media, the Los Angeles-based firm that offers consulting, legal and venture capital to upstart media, said last week: “When you look at the verticals out there, there aren’t many that that really reach a specific demographic so deeply.”

And while getting young people to look at YouTube videos doesn’t seem too tricky, StyleHaul started three years ago. “That’s an eternity in this business,” Csathy says. “It’s a question of who scales fastest.” The numbers StyleHaul boasts for young, female viewers, he says, “are hard to duplicate.” And with RTL’s investment, StyleHaul has a chance, he says to reach out to on TV and elsewhere -- it also owns Fremantle Media-- and particularly overseas.

One thing that makes StyleHaul so attractive might be that it is unabashedly consumer-minded. Its channels are filled with hosts who are buying clothing and cosmetics, and their fans want what those hosts want. “The content,” Csathy says, “is very commerce-friendly, and these are mobile-hungry kids far more likely to be looking in on mobile devices.” The deal, of course, is also another example of major corporate money grabbing up MCNs, and showbiz types, not tech investors, taking the lead. AwesomenessTV and Maker Studios might be the headliners of that trend, but Csathy is excited, to say the least, about that. “The Northern California VCs are now making the pilgrimage to Los Angeles,” Csathy says.

Nearly two years ago when, I met Horbaczewski, formerly a regional director for Saks Fifth Avenue, she was in New York for Fashion Week. She told me then that she never imagined StyleHaul would hit so big, so fast -- but she knew three months in that “wow, I think we’re really on to something.” Looks like it.

pj@mediapost.com

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