Former LADbible executives Thom Gulseven and Ben Powell-Jones, have launched Strong Watch Studios, a digital-first broadcast company backed by Hat Trick Productions.
The company aims to “plug the gap between TV broadcast and digital publishing,” according to Gulseven. “We’ve been lucky enough to work on some well-loved TV formats, and work at the world’s biggest digital publishing brand – and we absolutely loved both,” he said. “Now we want to bring together everything we’ve learnt to forge a future that is the best of both worlds.”
Strong Watch Studios will be based in London and is looking to hire a team of experienced producers, writers, and editors. The company is planning to launch a slate of original programming in the coming months
Strong Watch Studios will build out its own network of unscripted channels across all digital platforms in the coming months, as well as working with partners looking to add a digital broadcast offering to their own brands.
Powell-Jones said that the company is “excited to launch content of our own, but if you’re a company looking to take digital video to the next level, we’d love to help you make that transition.”
Gulseven and Powell-Jones have a proven track record in the digital media industry. At LADbible, they launched LADstudios, which introduced platform-agnostic formats to the publisher’s output.
Jimmy Mulville, owner and Managing Director at Hat Trick, said that Strong Watch Studios is “a perfect fit for Hat Trick.” “Digital content is a growing part of our industry’s ecosystem and I want Hat Trick to be at the forefront of that,” he said. “What Ben and Thom did at LADbible in such a short period was cutting edge and has been imitated all over the industry. We’re excited to have Strong Watch Studios as part of the group.”
Thom Gulseven will moderate a panel at this year’s TellyCast Digital Content Forum.
