CNN Enlists Casey Neistat to Build an In-House Viral Video Platform

Not long ago, Casey Neistat shocked fans by announcing that he will part ways with his everyday video blogs. Now, CNN has revealed that it will take over the YouTube phenom’s mobile social app, Beme (similar to Snapchat and Vine), hoping to attract its 6 million users. The mission here is to create a viral video platform from scratch and the news mainstay believes that Neistat is the perfect candidate for the job. “Casey has tapped into nearly six million really powerful viewers, most of which do not tune in to CNN,” Andrew Morse, global head of CNN Digital, told The New York Times. “To build this audience authentically, we believe we need to build something new.”

The Times also proclaimed that CNN’s new foray is in hot pursuit of recent acquisitions made my major news outlets — it’s playing catch-up. For example: “NBCUniversal recently invested $200 million in BuzzFeed, the new media start-up, and also put $200 million USD into Vox Media, a competing company that is home to technology, sports and political news sites.” What’s more, “AMC, the network known for the hit series The Walking Dead, announced this month that it had taken a minority stake in Funny or Die, the digital comedy site founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.”

So, what can one expect from the Neistat x CNN startup? Perhaps something along the lines of first class airplane experiences, hyped-out wearable tech reviews and more. All in all, the 35-year-old filmmaker, alongside his 12-person Beme team, will have complete control over the creation of “timely and topical videos” to help amplify engagement surrounding news topics. Beme will roll out a push notification today alerting users to download their videos before the app permanently ceases operations.

Expect the startup to launch in the summer of 2017.