LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FishBowl Worldwide Media, a next generation studio founded by entertainment industry veterans Vin Di Bona and Bruce Gersh, today announced the launch of Petsami, a new YouTube channel devoted to people passionate about their pets from the perspective of their BFFs (best furry friends), who also serve as hosts for each show. The Petsami channel is now live at www.YouTube.com/Petsami.
For everyone who considers their pet a member of the family, Petsami offers insight into the secret lives of their four-footed best friends through a gang of pet personalities. Featuring a wide variety of content rich platforms, Petsami will offer daily premium pet and animal video and social content designed to entertain and encourage viewers to share content around the animal in their own lives.
“Petsami allows us to leverage our incredible library of curated user-generated content to bring a new, fun and comic twist to current animal programming,” said Bruce Gersh, president and CEO of FishBowl. “The Petsami Network expands beyond a viewing channel to a specific destination that entertains, engages and encourages conversations with YouTube audiences and beyond.”
David Beebe, Vice President and General Manager of FishBowl’s Digital Studio, added, “The expansion of YouTube and Google’s social platforms allows users both video and social experience around content, making it the perfect home for Petsami.”
Carrie Ann Inaba will serve as executive producer on an upcoming series involving cats that has a philanthropic twist to it for Petsami. Celebrity trainer and animal advocate Laura Nativo serves as creative director of the Petsami platform. Well known in the pet lifestyle industry, Nativo’s previous television credits include CBS' Greatest American Dog and GSN's Dog Park Superstars. YouTube phenomenon Clark G, the talking dog that garnered more than 88 million views for the “Ultimate Dog Tease” video on YouTube, will host and produce a pet food cooking show for the channel as well.
Among the unique animal personalities launching their own shows on Petsami are: Tibs, the channel ambassador; Sabin, a Nepalese tiger with “wild animal” advice; KlipKat, a brilliant genius in the field of cleverly destroying things; Zach, the pup who is too cute and lets everyone else know it; Miley, Zach’s kitty counterpart; and Ivanna Iguana, football fan and gecko bully.
The channel launches today with six shows, including:
- CuteWinTail – Similar to the format of FishBowl’s incredibly successful CuteWinFail, each episode of CuteWinTail presents three clips and lets audiences decide which is the “most epic” as it applies to the world of pet and animals. Each week, an episode ends with “Pet of the Week.”
- Leash Line – Leash Line is a weekly news magazine show, profiling true stories of amazing animals from around the world. Its host, Monkey, is the proud pet of Emmy Award Winning Reporter Lu Parker, who also serves as executive producer.
- One Minute Meerkat – This weekly show examines what Meerkats are really saying, translating their thoughts through extremely complex technology. It turns out Meerkats are very similar to humans and each week is just as relatable as the next.
- Ask a Tiger – A weekly support show hosted by Sabin the Nepalese tiger, who offers domestic pets advice based on his expertise from the wild. Sabin also provides comedic user-generated clips to serve as examples of animal-human interaction.
- KlipKat – From her Venice apartment, internet junkie KlipKat shares her take on favorite cat clips and invites users to submit LOL speak captions for them. The highest rated user captions are featured in the next episode.
- How2BCute – Hoshi the Hamster, Ivanna Iguana and Gus the Guppy are the G.H.I. (think Statler and Waldorf). They are too cool for school and spend their time each day interacting with users and influencers with snarky, yet entertaining comments.
In addition to the programming available on YouTube, users will be able to further engage and learn more about the shows and characters on PETSAMI.com. As the world’s first entertainment channel for pets by pets, PETSAMI.com will offer an interactive platform to include blogs, photos and behind the scenes videos, message boards, and various other social channels.
Petsami marks FishBowl’s second YouTube initiative. The company first found success with its show CuteWinFail, a series made in collaboration with DeFranco Inc. and starring YouTube celebrity host Toby Turner. The hit show has already received more than 90 million views across YouTube and is ranked in the YouTube Comedy Channel Top 20.
ABOUT FISHBOWL WORLDWIDE MEDIA
FishBowl Worldwide Media is an independent production company founded in 2010 by entertainment industry veterans Vin Di Bona and Bruce Gersh, with the creative team led by Susan Levison. This next generation studio is a transmedia storyteller developing properties for film, television, digital platforms and brands by partnering with marketers, digital companies and ad agencies in addition to the Hollywood creative community. FishBowl is in production on television properties for networks such as Discovery Channel, HGTV, MTV and truTV. Led by David Beebe, FishBowl’s Digital division has launched the hit web series, CuteWinFail, which is ranked in the YouTube Comedy Channel Top 20 with more than 90 million video views, Ultimate Proposal, an original series for Yahoo!, and the animated web series The Potts. FishBowl Worldwide Media is headquartered in Los Angeles and can be found online at www.fbwmedia.com.