Case study · Zero Point Zero · Steven Rinella · 2011–2019
MeatEater
An audience relationship became a business across television, audio, publishing and commerce.
My role: Development · Marketing · Partnerships · Monetization
The opportunity
After Travel Channel cancelled Steven Rinella’s Wild Within, Zero Point Zero saw an audience with interests reaching well beyond the existing outdoor television formats. Food, hunting, fishing and conservation could sit within a thoughtful, recognizable point of view.
In 2011, Zero Point Zero entered a joint venture with Rinella covering future media revenue across television, film, publishing, podcasts and events. MeatEater was built around the people and interests that made that audience distinct.
My role
At Zero Point Zero, I helped grow MeatEater beyond the television show. My work connected development, marketing, partnerships and monetization as the series became a broader media ecosystem.
The opportunity was to build around the audience’s interests, with Rinella at the center. Each extension needed a reason to exist and a relationship to the rest of the business.
Build beyond television
The series premiered on Sportsman Channel in 2012. Direct-to-consumer downloads and merchandise followed in 2014, then the podcast and a two-volume hunting, butchering and cooking book in 2015. Netflix added another distribution platform.
By the end of the original joint-venture development period, the output included 105 television episodes, the feature documentary Stars in the Sky, books, a podcast, live events, digital publishing, e-commerce and social channels. The podcast had reached more than 300,000 weekly downloads and streams, and a 12-city live tour sold out theaters seating 700 to 1,200 people.
A business a buyer could invest in
The Chernin Group became an investor and took a controlling position in MeatEater. In 2019, Zero Point Zero sold its stake to TCG.
The value came from a recognizable brand, an audience relationship and several ways to turn that relationship into revenue. Television established the connection. Publishing, audio, experiences and commerce gave it more places to grow.
The lesson
Build the rights, distribution and business model around the audience from the beginning. A series can become more valuable when its identity carries into formats people want to use between episodes.
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