Jukin Media, Inc. is an

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...

company that operates by identifying shareable or otherwise compelling user-generated videos, negotiating with the video owners, and then licensing the videos for third-party use and/or featuring the videos in its own productions. The company was founded in 2009 by Jonathan Skogmo, Aldo Carrascoso and Josh Entman and is headquartered in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

History

Jukin Media's Co-Founder and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Jonathan Skogmo conceived of the idea for the company while working as a video researcher and producer for the television show ''Country Fried Home Videos''. After realizing there was an opportunity to aggregate and monetize digital clips that appeared on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and other online video platforms, he together with Aldo Carrascoso and Josh Entman started Jukin Media in 2009 from his West Hollywood apartment. Between 2013 and 2015, the company raised several rounds of funding totaling $4.2 million from investors including, among others,

Bertelsmann Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA () is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates, and is also active in the service sector and ...

Digital Media Investments,

Peter Guber Howard Peter Guber (born March 1, 1942) is an American business executive, entrepreneur, educator, and author. He is chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment. Guber's most recent films from Mandalay Entertainment include '' The Kids Are All ...

Maker Studios Maker(s) or The Maker(s) may refer to: Film and television * ''The Maker'' (film), a 1997 American drama film *'' Makers: Women Who Make America'', a 2013 American TV documentary, a 2014 TV series, and related media *Maker Studios, now part of D ...

, and

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

Ventures. In 2014, Jukin partnered with Maker Studios, giving Maker Studios access to Jukin's library of video clips, and giving Jukin access to Maker's operational resources. The partnership also resulted in the launch of a dedicated website for ''FailArmy'', Jukin's owned and operated entertainment brand. In August 2017, the company announced that it had paid more than $15 million to viral video creators. On October 16, 2018,

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...

signed an agreement with Jukin to assume operational responsibilities for

TBD To be announced (TBA), to be confirmed (TBC), to be determined or decided or declared (TBD), and other variations, are placeholder terms used very broadly in event planning to indicate that although something is scheduled or expected to happen, a ...

, effective immediately. The agreement will also result in content supplied by Jukin being expanded on TBD’s programming lineup. On August 11, 2020, Jukin announced partnerships with BroadbandTV and Fullscreen to provide their rosters of influencers and YouTubers exclusive discounts to Jukin’s library, dedicated customer support, and early access to new features. In August 2021, Jukin was acquired by

Trusted Media Brands Trusted Media Brands, Inc. (TMBI), formerly known as the Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (RDA), is an American multi-platform media and publishing company that is co-headquartered in New York City and White Plains, New York. The company was ...

, a parent company of ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...

''.

Operations

Jukin Media operational model involves discovering, acquiring, and licensing user-generated video clips. Besides licensing those video clips for use by advertisers, digital publishers, TV shows, and other entities, it also provides licensing and clearance services to production companies and media networks. Additionally, Jukin Media produces and owns a variety of multimedia channels on media platforms such as

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

, and

broadcast television Broadcast television systems (or terrestrial television systems outside the US and Canada) are the encoding or formatting systems for the transmission and reception of terrestrial television signals. Analog television systems were standardized b ...

Licensing model

Through a process of review that utilizes

proprietary software Proprietary software is software that is deemed within the free and open-source software to be non-free because its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner exercises a legal monopoly afforded by modern copyright and int ...

and manual sorting, Jukin identifies videos that might go viral and then negotiates with the video's owner to establish a licensing agreement with that user. Jukin pays video owners for every video, whether by one-time payment or ongoing revenue share. Once Jukin has acquired a clip, it monetizes the clip with advertisements and integrates the clip into its library of videos that are available for third-party use. After being acquired, the video clips are licensed to third-parties that distribute them through a variety of channels including social media, television, and websites.

Notable examples

One notable example of the type of videos that Jukin Media seeks out is Jared Frank Kicked in the Head, a video depicting a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

man filming himself being kicked in the head by the driver of a passing passenger train in

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

. As of August 2015, the video, licensed by Jukin Media, had reached nearly 38 million views and had netted the video's creator approximately $30,000. Similar reception occurred for

Pizza Rat Pizza Rat is an internet meme based around a viral video of a brown rat carrying a slice of pizza down the steps of a New York City Subway station in Manhattan. The video was first uploaded to Instagram on September 21, 2015, and a copy was uplo ...

, a viral video depicting a rat carrying a large slice of pizza to its home on the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

. The video’s creator Matt Little signed with Jukin Media when the video had received just a few thousand views; within a few weeks it reached over 8 million views on YouTube, and was featured on many popular TV shows and websites, including ''

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Spartina Productions and CBS Studios, it is the second it ...

'' and '' Conan''. Other videos that Jukin Media has been involved with include Hero Cat and

Chewbacca Mask Lady Chewbacca Mask Lady (also known as Chewbacca Mom) is a viral video featuring 37-year-old Texan mother Candace Payne filming herself heartily laughing while wearing a '' Star Wars'' Chewbacca mask. The video was posted to Facebook with the descr ...

, which became the most watched Facebook Live video ever recorded. In addition to viral videos, Jukin Media’s business model has contributed to widely circulated situations where content removal has occurred. In June 2020, Jukin Media issued a

DMCA takedown notice The Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA) is United States federal law that creates a conditional 'safe harbor' for online service providers (OSP) (a group which includes internet service providers (ISP) and other Inter ...

on President Donald Trump's Twitter account for unauthorized usage of a viral video; Twitter removed the content.

Television programs

Jukin Media had also produced two programs in conjunction with

MRC MRC may refer to Government * Medical Research Council (United Kingdom) * Medical Reserve Corps, a US network of volunteer organizations * Municipalité régionale de comté (regional county municipality), Quebec, Canada * Military Revolutionar ...

's Dick Clark Productions International to syndicating both programs worldwide.

Now That's Funny!

Jukin Media produces the TV show ''Now That's Funny!'' on Britain's Channel 5, which is a family-friendly clip show airing on Sunday nights.

FailArmy the TV show

Jukin Media also produces an international TV version of FailArmy. The half-hour comedy based on the popular YouTube channel airs in 221 TV markets worldwide.

Related properties

In addition to the company's video services, it is also the producer of '' World's Funniest'' on

FOX Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

and is the owner and operator of several consumer-facing entertainment brands, including FailArmy, which compiles fail videos and has a subscriber base of approximately 14.5 million users on its YouTube channel and more than 18.4 million fans on its

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page as of March 2019, and The Pet Collective, which is a joint venture between Jukin and FremantleMedia's Tiny Riot! studio.

Controversies

In November 2014, Jukin Media was sued by

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influent ...

Ray William Johnson Ray William Johnson is an American internet celebrity best known for his eponymous YouTube channel and his web series on that channel, ''Equals Three''. In 2013, the channel surpassed 10 million subscribers and had over 2 billion views, making ...

for requesting the removal of 41 "Equals Three" videos which sampled their content. In February 2016, Jukin Media and Equals Three settled out of court before the jury’s verdict could be revealed to the court. While the verdict in the case remains sealed, members of the jury informed media outlets that the jury unanimously found that Equals Three's usage of Jukin video content was not

fair use Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...

under U.S. copyright law. In January 2020, Jukin Media engaged in a public dispute with YouTube channel MxR Plays, where Jukin Media accused the channel of

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...

and MxR Plays accused Jukin Media of

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

. Within a few days, Jukin Media and MxR reached an agreement that was satisfactory to both parties. Details of the agreement were not disclosed.

References

External links

* {{Reader's Digest Online mass media companies of the United States 2009 establishments in California Companies based in Los Angeles American companies established in 2009 Entertainment companies based in California Entertainment companies established in 2009 2021 mergers and acquisitions Reader's Digest Digital media organizations