TV4 Entertainment, a digital studio and streaming-network operator, is moving its global operations from L.A. to Florida, setting up shop at Full Sail University under a multiyear pact.
The company is relocating its headquarters to Full Sail’s campus in Winter Park, Fla., in the Orlando area to tap into the school’s pool of recent grads. The partnership will officially kick off in April, when TV Entertainment will hire a number of Full Sail graduates across several disciplines. Over the next few years, according to TV4 Entertainment, it expects to create hundreds of new jobs to the Orlando region and most of those hires will be Full Sail alumni.
TV4 Entertainment will invest several million dollars into productions based at Full Sail, including series, live events, and feature-length films, according to chief marketing officer Larry Baird. The company was founded in 2012 by CEO Jon Cody, previously senior VP of digital for Fox Digital Media and the GM of Hulu during its launch back in 2007. Investors in the company include Warner Bros. and Comcast’s Sky.
“Our strategic partnership with Full Sail University gives their talented graduates real-life opportunities with a global platform today to help them become the leaders of tomorrow’s entertainment industry,” TV4 Entertainment CEO Jon Cody said in a statement.
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The company will base its headquarters on Full Sail’s campus in a multipurpose office and production space, relocating its original production studio and portfolio of streaming services. TV4 will retain office space at its current headquarters in Venice, Calif., along with offices in New York, Singapore and Rio de Janeiro. Several TV4 Entertainment senior executives and existing staff will be located on-site in Winter Park, with Cody expected to spend about half his time at the new Florida HQ.
Also under the pact with Full Sail, TV4 Entertainment will engage with university students and faculty to work on the company’s content productions, streaming technology platforms, media operations, distribution and marketing.
“In welcoming our strategic partners TV4 Entertainment to Full Sail’s campus, we are excited to collaborate, innovate and educate the next generation of media and entertainment industry professionals, while expanding employment opportunities for our graduates,” Full Sail University president Garry Jones said in a statement.
TV4 Entertainment last year established Concrete Club, an independent genre-based studio, to produce and distribute scripted and nonfiction feature films and TV series. Concrete Club’s initial releases have included documentary “Lucha VaVoom: Inside America’s Most Outrageous Show,” about L.A.’s underground wrestling scene; U.K.-based drama “Together,” about a pair of octogenarians dealing with the bureaucracy of the health-care system; and documentary “Sex Pistols: The Bollocks.”
Full Sail University offers undergraduate and graduate degrees across music and recording; film and TV; art and design; games; media and communications; sports; and technology. It began 1979 in Dayton, Ohio, as an audio-recording workshop and relocated to Central Florida in 1989.
On Thursday (Feb. 28), TV4 Entertainment plans to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Full Sail’s Florida campus with Cody, Full Sail’s Jones, Tim Giuliani, president and CEO of the Orlando Economic Partnership, and Winter Park Mayor Steve Leary slated to attend.