R&B singer and entrepreneur Ray J recently launched Tronix Network, a streaming platform promising to push the boundaries of reality TV. Ray J joined TheStreet to discuss his ambitious plans for the network.
Transcript:
CONWAY GITTENS: So, Tronix network, you’re the CEO, you’re a new streaming service. It’s almost about three months old now. So how are you finding the streaming media business?
RAY J: This is the business to be in, especially for us, because we target an audience that we specialize in doing the best content for. And we’re in our own bubble. But what’s good is that I don’t call myself the CEO because I’m like the founder. My goal is to find the right CEO, find the right CFO, COO, and more importantly, the CMO. And so it’s in its beginning stages, but I like to build it up for about six to eight months. And then start to do the right hire, because that’s the only way to build it and put the right structure in.
CONWAY GITTENS: And why streaming media? Because the media business is not that great right now. Yeah, I mean, cable subscribers are down, the streamers are all competing for one another. So why get into that space of the business?
RAY J: Well, it’s good for us because I wouldn’t call our content well, I would call our content high, high drama. I use ratchet in the word because it gives you the exact definition of what it is. But there’s only a few people who are proud of this kind of content that we do. So we’re already in our own lane. We just have to stay consistent. And if we do want to evolve into what the bigger streamers are doing, then we would start doing scripted and, you know, big budget movies. But right now, we’re just solely into this loud reality world. We have a reality factor.
CONWAY GITTENS: I mean, there was a time when content was king, right. But then we had all these streamers and so now content, I mean, there were so many places for it to go. How are you finding getting content, are you finding the content that you want?
RAY J: Yeah, well, we’re producing the content. You know, it’s all U.S. from scratch and our partners at Viacom. I love BET. I love VH1. I’m still in business with the linear networks. And so our skills to me go far beyond that because we can be more risky on streaming. So you just get it uncut. But I just nobody does TV like us.
CONWAY GITTENS: So Tronix costs, what, $5.99 a month, $4.99 a month. Does it make sense to become part of a bundle? Now we’re hearing like streamers are trying to team up. Yeah so does it make sense for Tronix given your demographic to team up, and what would you look for in a partner?
RAY J: Well, I think the goal, I’m 100% bootstrapped and that’s the scariest thing is to just put all your money into something, and you’re waiting for a profit and it takes time. I think the bigger goal for me in all of these streaming platforms is to give everybody who’s at their top level of reality their own platform. And then if everybody has their own bubble and their own network skewing to what their fans want to see, then you bundle the whole package of the team, right. So you build every network from the ground up.
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