Queen Elizabeth‘s passing reminded me of our 2019 coverage of TRUE ROYALTY, the ‘mega-niche’ streamer for “the 150M people worldwide who are Royal super-fans.”
TRUE ROYALTY now carries a library of “450+ constantly-refreshed quality titles about Royalty today, around the world and throughout history.”
First published, October 2019
TRUE ROYALTY is a London-based subscription video service dedicated to British Royalty.
Co-founder GREGOR ANGUS describes True Royalty as a “clearly-defined interest” or mega-niche.
- His analysis points to tens of millions of hyper-engaged Royal TV viewers.
- They are concentrated in the U.S. and Commonwealth countries.
- True Royalty’s business case was endorsed by U.S. box office results as we spoke: DOWNTON ABBEY was the week’s shock winner, beating out several Hollywood favorites.
PODCAST: Listen Now!
Market Scale
Graphic retrieved from True Royalty
Commissioning Originals
Highlights of our conversation:
- Royal weddings are among the most-watched of all television programs, all-time and worldwide
- True Royalty launched in 2018 with 150-200 hours of programs
- Most of the content is from producer Nick Bullen who specializes in royal coverage, and who is a partner in the venture.
- Monthly sub fee: $5:99
- TR is now ordering original documentaries:
- An early greenlight is “Meghan for President?” about Meghan Markle and the issues about which she is passionate.
- New distribution platforms and set-top-boxes like Comcast’s Xfinity X1 platform are expanding TR’s footprint.
Takeaway
- I wondered how True Royalty will compete against Netflix, Prime Video, and now Disney, Apple and other massively-funded streamers.
- I’m impressed with Gregor’s plan and execution.
- His success will establish a commercial model for hyper-niche streaming services dedicated to other highly-qualified documentary genres.
- Listen for yourself!
$12 Million Funding Round
- True Royalty initial seed-funding rounds raised $7 million.
- A new funding round and wants to raise $12 million.
- The new cash will be used on tech, marketing, and content, in part to expand the geographical footprint of the service including India, and China.
- Read more in Variety’s coverage (October 10, 2019).
“Our intention has always been to go not all direct and not all third-party, but [go for] ubiquity,” he told Variety. “Any TV channel needs to be available where people watch television. Our team is thinking less about being pigeonholed as SVOD, and that we are a TV channel, it just happens to be streamed.” GREGOR ANGUS
Gregor Angus
A screenshot of the True Royalty home page
Many thanks to marketing expert Patricia Frith for introducing Gregor and True Royalty.
Distribution Update, 2022
- The streamer is available in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK.
- In the US it can be watched on TV, tablet or mobile through Amazon Prime Video Channels, The Roku Channel Store, Comcast Xfinity, Cox, Contour, Sling, Apple TV, Google Play, and Amazon Fire TV, as well as directly through www.trueroyalty.tv.
CuriosityStream
- Listen to my podcast with another micro-streamer, CuriosityStream’s Clint Stinchcomb.
- CuriosityStream is the subscription video online service created by Discovery founder John Hendricks to serve the audience that loves classic factual programs.
- Clint outlines his genres (20% Science), hours offered (around 3,000), sources of acquisitions, formats (30% of programs are < 19 mins), typical deal terms, and more.
- Listen here.
