Austin-based humor website The Chive is the latest online content producer to try to make the jump from the computer screen to the TV set — but it’s designed for viewing in bars rather than at home.
While the website looks to bring its content to as many bar patrons as possible, it’s also dipping its toe into the world of original scripted video. According to Entertainment Weekly, The Chive has wrapped production on a scripted video series – as yet untitled – that will launch later this year to viewers using a Roku box to stream web video to their TVs. The series is described as similar to The Office, but set inside The Chive’s Austin offices.
It’s not the only show on The Chive’s newly expanded video offerings, which will feature content – think bikini-clad women, extreme sports videos, and a healthy dose of painful pratfalls – curated from the website’s steady stream of videos and photos uploaded by about 30 million unique visitors per month.
An announcement from The Chive hypes the new Chive TV network as the ideal screen filler for bar and restaurant television sets. As described in the announcement, the network hopes to screen “the very best content from The Chive delivered in an endless, streaming loop of content curated specifically for bars.”
The site is offering free access to its channel to the first 1,500 bars that want it, with The Chive promising content “that will keep butts in barstools longer than ever.”