• by Charlene Weisler , Op-Ed Contributor, May 8, 2013

Pivot TV, Participant Media’s new venture into television, is apt to change the single-screen television paradigm with its blend of multiscreen programming formats targeted to Millennials and their media usage tastes.

You may be familiar with Participant Media as the company that produces a blend of progressive and blockbuster films (think “Food Inc.” and “Lincoln”). The company’s expansion from the big screen into the small screen comes with Pivot TV, which will go live this August. Millennials -- who Participant CEO Jim Berk calls the new Greatest Generation -- seek entertainment that, like Participant, inspires and accelerates social change.

Pivot TV President Evan Shapiro has always been a supporter of research. So it is not surprising that he used research to help craft Pivot TV’s brand promise and position with a study of 3,200 15-24 year olds. The result was three target segments for Pivot TV: Allies, who seek socially relevant content; Clicktivists, who expand their influence online; and Young Heroes, who are true on-the-street activists. All three clusters are “pivotal” to MVPDs as well, since they are the generation that operators need to reach for future subscriber growth. According to Shapiro, the target cluster groups are very politically progressive and seek the same attitudes from businesses. So there is a psychographic element to branding to these consumers that offer a connection that goes beyond strictly age and demo.

To capture these trans-media consumers, the company’s senior vice president of research, Karen Ramspacher, has created an innovative measurement called the Participant Impact Index. “We are going to look at what people are thinking about and doing over thirty social action causes that the company has identified as important,” she says. This index will measure all types of programs across many networks and can also measure the halo affect for advertisers within that environment.

At the company’s launch party back in March, Shapiro introduced several new original series, many with second-screen elements.  The variety show “HitRecord TV” is a good example.  Reinventing an old program format – the variety show - Pivot TV is launching a multiscreen version that uses a community of cutting edge artists who perform across all available platforms. An overview of the programming can be viewed here. 

Can Pivot TV make its mark on the programming landscape for Millennials who are measured across platforms and attitudes? Stayed tuned for its launch in August 2013.