Click here to read the full article.
David Letterman’s long tenure in late-night is about to get a global boost as his Worldwide Pants teams with NBCUniversal and Merzigo to expand distribution of more than 6,000 episodes on YouTube, Facebook and other
platforms around the world.
The deal calls for tech Merzigo to optimize Letterman’s archive of late-night variety shows, starting in 1982 with NBC’s “Late Night With David Letterman,” which ran until 1993, and CBS “The Late Show With David Letterman,” which aired from 1993 to 2015.
“David Letterman’s unparalleled run in late night, across four decades from his shows on NBC and CBS, contains 6,000 hours of some of the most memorable television content in pop culture history. As we continue to expand our distribution of these iconic moments on YouTube and Facebook, partnering with Merzigo will enable us to better reach fans and new viewers across every platform and device, delivering our thousands of videos in the best quality they have ever been seen,” said Walter Kim, Worldwide Pants’ executive producer for digital.
NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution already teamed with Worldwide Pants to launch a Letterman themed FAST channel via Samsung TV Plus last year. The expanded deal and its focus on free, ad-supported streaming platforms is another sign that owners of large content libraries are seeing more potential in FAST channel distribution. NBC owns the “Late Night With David Letterman” archive. Worldwide Pants owns the CBS “Late Show” archive — a deal that reflected Letterman’s enormous clout when he made the move from NBC to CBS.
“Our partnership with Worldwide Pants marks a significant step in unlocking the full digital potential of ‘The Late Show with David Letterman.’ By combining Merzigo’s advanced technology and algorithm expertise with this iconic content, we aim to significantly enhance discoverability and deepen audience engagement across YouTube and Facebook,” said Dilip Bala, Merzigo’s managing director for the Americas. “This collaboration enables us not only to introduce the show to new generations, but also to reimagine the viewing experience for long-time fans through platform-native optimization and data-driven enhancements.”
Merzigo’s proprietary technology makes it easy to mine a large archive such as Letterman’s to create compilations, collages and related content in addition to bespoke graphics, dubbing into multiple languages, search and filtering options. The company at present has partnerships with Hearst Media Production Group and Steve Harvey Global. It’s based in London, Los Angeles and Istanbul.
(Pictured: Pee-wee Herman on NBC’s ‘Late-Night With David Letterman’ in 1983.)
