image credit : Flickr/Fortune Live Media

Media mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg well renowned for his stints at the likes of Disney, Paramount, Dreamworks and now WndrCO and being behind several movie hits including The Little Mermaid, Alladin, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King among others has now closed on $1 Billion in funding for his new media startup NewTV which stands as part of WndrCO and counts former eBay and HP CEO Meg Whitman as current CEO and is embarking on a journey to dish out short video clips made by A-list talent for consumers in what can be dubbed as a Netflix meets YouTube platform.

This $1 Billion funding round came from the likes of Warner Bros, Disney, 21st Century Fox and several institutional investors for NewTV which represents another major media initiative by Katzenberg who has been reported to be talking to several top Hollywood producers and directors about creating content for its platform which would be dished out to digital consumers.

Katzenberg is aiming to create a platform which provides short but interesting content with the anticipation of consumers willing to pay for more quality and active but short-span video content with Katzenberg putting forth the idea from his former company Dreamworks’ video platform Pop.com which aimed to feature content from top Hollywood artists and creators but was short-lived due to it being well ahead of its time coming out late 1999 when several hassles and hurdles existed around the massive delivery of online content to consumers.

According to Bloomberg, Each of  NewTV’s series would come with a production cost of between $5-$6 million per hour but would deliver at 15 minute caps providing original content to various consumers.

This business model has long been debated across Hollywood as it hasn’t yet proven to be well stable and sustainable with several analysts expressing doubts around the short-form video business model.

Katzenberg who hasn’t officially disclosed major details about NewTV has long been known for his successful and innovative ventures in the Hollywood industry and although it isn’t fully clear how NewTV is going to operate, Katzenberg’s successes stands as a major factor in this investment for NewTV which is reported to be aiming to raise up to $2 Billion in total for its mobile video project.

NewTV is currently being incubated under WndrCO which has already made several investments in media startups and aims to operate by fellow media mogul Barry Diller’s IAC whose firm counts several major internet and media brands including Tinder, OkCupid, Investopedia, Vimeo, Ask.com and several others.

WndrCO’s current investments include British music service Mixcloud, The Young Turks, Aquabyte, Node, Ubiquity6 and media company Clique.

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