The Beachbody Company is a
publicly traded
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (list ...
American fitness and media company based in
El Segundo, California
El Segundo ( , ; ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located on Santa Monica Bay, it was incorporated on January 18, 1917, and is part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. The population was 16,731 as of th ...
. It operates the brands Beachbody On Demand, Team Beachbody, MYXfitness and Openfit. The company also sells
dietary supplements
A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement one's diet by taking a pill (pharmacy), pill, capsule (pharmacy), capsule, tablet (pharmacy), tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients either extr ...
such as Shakeology and Beachbar through direct response
infomercials
An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...
and
multi-level marketing
Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial marketing strategy for the sale of products or services in which the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling th ...
via independent Team Beachbody "coaches" who serve as sales consultants.
History
The company was founded in 1998 by Carl Daikeler and Jon Congdon in Santa Monica, California.
Daikeler was previously in informercials for Lifeline Gym and :08 Min Abs in the 1990s. The founders received $500,000 in
angel investing
An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...
, developed a series of workout videos and bought the website Beachbody.com.
In 2005, P90X, or Power 90 Extreme, was created by
Tony Horton as a commercial home exercise regimen and developed as a successor to the program called "Power 90". It consists of a training program that uses
cross-training
Cross-training is athletic training in sports other than the athlete's usual sport. The goal is improving overall performance. It takes advantage of the particular effectiveness of one training method to negate the shortcomings of another.
In gen ...
and
periodization
In historiography, periodization is the process or study of categorizing the past into discrete, quantified, and named blocks of time for the purpose of study or analysis.Adam Rabinowitz. It's about time: historical periodization and Linked Ancie ...
, combined with a nutrition and dietary supplement plan. It was heavily marketed through
infomercials
An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...
and celebrity endorsements.
In 2007, customers began selling workout DVDs.
The company announced that it was developing an
OTT streaming platform in 2015 that would function similar to
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
containing all of its exercise workouts previously available on DVD. The platform gained popularity early in the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
with more than half a million new subscribers at that time.
Between June and November 2017, advertising watchdog organization
Truth in Advertising found that Beachbody distributors were making false and unsubstantiated income claims to promote the company's business opportunity.
The
FTC has stated that 99.6% of all MLM participants will lose money, after factoring in the costs to join.
In 2017, Beachbody agreed to pay $3.6 million to settle a lawsuit from the city of
Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...
over automatic credit card renewals. It was alleged that Beachbody was charging its customers’ credit cards on an automatic, recurring basis without the required written consent of those customers.
A three-way merger between Forest Road Acquisition Corp, Myx Fitness Holdings and Beachbody was entered into in February 2021, which valued the new business combination at $2.9 billion.
Divisions
Beachbody On Demand
The company introduced a
video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
streaming subscription service known as Beachbody On Demand in 2015 with a library of at-home workouts from programs such as Insanity and P90X.
According to the CEO, the company's board was hesitant to offer all of its workout DVDs for a single subscription rate.
Its programs include Morning Meltdown 100, 80 Day Obsession, LIIFT4, 21 Day Fix and Insanity.
[Diana Olick, CNBC.]
Get really fit by hitting the basement
" May 27, 2016. Retrieved Sep 5, 2018.
Due to lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, Beachbody On Demand experienced growth of more than 300 percent in new subscribers, passing 2 million overall by April 2020. The company announced that it would stream free classes for children on
Vimeo
Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...
during the pandemic.
Team Beachbody
Team Beachbody encourages members of the general public to enroll as "coaches". These customers-turned-salespeople register online as a "coach" and sell fitness packages using Beachbody products and programs including workout DVDs, food supplements and meal plans and in turn earning up to 25% commission
for each sale.
Carl Daikeler, a co-founder described coaches as serving as "walking billboards and salespeople who want to help their family and friends..."
and that the "average lifespan" of a coach is three months. In 2013,
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
reported that within two years of Team Beachbody's launch, sales of the parent company's products rose more than 60%.
In 2015, news outlets claimed the division was a "
scheme A scheme is a systematic plan for the implementation of a certain idea.
Scheme or schemer may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''The Scheme'' (TV series), a BBC Scotland documentary series
* The Scheme (band), an English pop band
* ''The Schem ...
" as anyone could register as a coach.
It was later reported that Team Beachbody coaches earned an average of $2,600 per year and more than half of its coaches earned nothing.
Shakeology is a dietary supplement that is sold by Team Beachbody. It was formulated by
Darin Olien
Darin Olien is an American author and podcast host. With a B.A. in exercise physiology and an unaccredited M.A. in psychology, he labels himself a "wellness expert", promotes " superfoods" and co-starred as well as produced the Netflix docuserie ...
, who also co-created the company's plant-based Ultimate Reset 21-day detox programme.
MYXfitness
The Beachbody Company acquired MYXfitness, an exercise bike manufacturer, upon going public in June 2021. MYX remained in Greenwich, Connecticut and released an updated indoor cycle that July. It integrated Beachbody On Demand and Openfit within an existing library of workout content.
Openfit
In 2018, Congdon co-founded a personalized nutrition programming and tracking app with "
FaceTime
FaceTime is a Proprietary software, proprietary videotelephony product developed by Apple Inc. FaceTime is available on supported iOS mobile devices running iOS 4 and later and Mac computers that run and later. FaceTime supports any iOS devic ...
for fitness" live group classes called Openfit.
The company acquired
LeBron James
LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is widely considered one of the greatest pl ...
and
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...
's Ladder, which develops nutritional products to help athletes with severe cramping after James had issues in the
2014 NBA Finals
The 2014 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2013–14 season and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs defeated the two-time defending NBA ...
. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, James and Schwarzenegger remained minority stakeholders.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beachbody Company
Health clubs in the United States
Companies based in Santa Monica, California
Health care companies established in 1998
Retail companies established in 1998
1998 establishments in California
Medical and health organizations based in California
Infomercials
Special-purpose acquisition companies