Apple TV is adding its first branded-content channel: Red Bull TV, the digital action-sports and entertainment network produced and distributed by the energy-drink manufacturer.
Red Bull TV live programming, films, shows and clips are now available to Apple TV users worldwide for free. Launched in 2010, Red Bull TV features “inspirational entertainment programming” designed to promote the beverage and its high-action brand image. Content includes live global events and sports, music and lifestyle entertainment.
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The network — which has no ads except for the Red Bull branding — also is available online (at redbull.tv), via Apple iOS and Android apps, Google Chromecast and Samsung Smart TVs. (Some content also is available on Red Bull’s YouTube channel, which has 3.25 million subscribers.) In addition to live events, Red Bull TV features curated playlists for continuous play. According to the company, up to 40% of the programming non-branded, third-party content.
Red Bull Media House is most famous for producing and distributing the Red Bull Stratos space jump by skydiver Felix Baumgartner in October 2012, which more than 8 million people watched live on YouTube.
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In 2014, live programming on Red Bull TV will expand to include coverage of third-party events on the World Snowboard Tour, including the Burton European and U.S. Open. The lineup also will include Red Bull-produced events such as Red Bull Rampage, featuring free-ride mountain bikers racing on a near-vertical sandstone ridge near Virgin, Utah.
The digital network also provides access to on-demand HD programming including action features and original episodic series such as “Red Bull Crashed Ice,” covering downhill ice-skating racing; “Life Behind Bars,” which follows mountain bike athlete Brandon Semenuk and his crew; and “Sheckler Sessions,” which showcases professional skateboarder Ryan Sheckler.
Red Bull Media House, with U.S. operations based in Santa Monica, Calif., produces and distributes film, TV, print and digital media, music and games.
