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Simmons to unclog hip-hop bottleneck with Def on Demand
THINK HIP-HOP fans watch VOD? For shizzle.
Trying to capitalize on the growing urban market, Russell Simmons is behind the first video-on-demand channel targeting a hip-hop audience. DoD-which started life as Def on Demand but has since morphed into an acronym-launches Nov. 11 on Comcast and will be available in 10 million homes.
The network was created as a solution to "the bottleneck between fans and producers" of urban content, said Will Griffin, CEO of Simmons Lathan Media Group, the force behind DoD. Hip-hop content abounds, he said, but there's not enough room on mainstream broadcast media to play it all. "Technology has made it possible to present content directly to fans without the middle man," he said. "We've become the programmers."
SLMG is the urban entertainment company, co-founded by Mr. Simmons and TV producer Stan Lathan, whose credits include HBO's "Def Comedy Jam" and feature films such as "How to be a Player."
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