Frederator and Seibert have been credited with producing various, critically-acclaimed media projects, predominantly in children's animation.[2][3] The studio has locations in New York City, where Frederator Digital is based,[4] and Burbank, California.[5]
In 2016, Frederator would be acquired by Canadian animation studio Rainmaker, and merged into Wow! Unlimited Media where Seibert was Chief Creator Officer; he would remain at the company until August 2020. After departing, he would found a successor company, FredFilms, in February 2021.[6]
History
Founding and early years
Before Frederator, in 1983, Fred Seibert founded Fred/Alan, Inc. in New York City with his college friend Alan Goodman; in 1988, Fred/Alan partnered with Albie Hecht in Chauncey Street Productions to produce television programs for Nickelodeon, MTV, A&E, and CBS. The Fred/Alan firm closed down in 1992.
Seibert became the president of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in 1992, and created What a Cartoon!, a showcase consisting of 48 shorts that aired on Cartoon Network. In 1996, when Time Warner merged with Turner Broadcasting (owner of Hanna-Barbera), he left the studio.
In 2004, David Karp interned at Frederator Studios at its first Manhattan location, and built their first blogging platform.[10] In 2007, he launched Tumblr from a rented desk at Frederator Studios' Park Avenue South offices, with chief engineer Marco Arment.[11][12] Seibert was one of Tumblr's first bloggers.[13]
On November 1, 2005, Frederator launched what it called "the first cartoon podcast."[14] Named Channel Frederator by David Karp (who also structured and edited the initial episodes), this weekly animation network features submitted films from around the world, and quickly became one of the top video podcasts on Apple Inc.'s iTunes. In quick succession, The Wubbcast was launched for pre-schoolers in January 2006, and ReFrederator featuring vintage public domain cartoons in April 2006. Channel Frederator became the model for Seibert's media company Next New Networks and reaches almost 4,000,000 video views monthly.
On June 25, 2007 Variety article announced the studio had formed Frederator Films, dedicated to creating animated feature films budgeted under $20 million.[15] Frederator's first feature is set up at Paramount Pictures, co-produced with J. J. Abrams' Bad Robot. They have also set up their first two animated features in a first look production arrangement for Sony Pictures Animation.[16]
Expansion into web animation
The studio produced its first original internet cartoons with independent animator Dan Meth. The Meth Minute 39 launched on September 5, 2007, featuring 39 of Meth's original character shorts. (The first cartoon was "Internet People", a video on the viral video sites YouTube and MySpaceTV that featured some popular Internet memes and internet people.) A spin-off, Nite Fite, debuted in October 2008. These series have totaled over 35,000,000 video views to date.
Frederator Studios became a division of parent Frederator Networks when founder Fred Seibert announced the company's new YouTube funded channel and adult production label, Cartoon Hangover in February 2012[17] and 18 months later started the Channel Frederator Network, a multi-channel network(MCN) dedicated to helping individual YouTube animation creators distribute and monetize their owned and operated channels. At launch, Frederator produced three animated series for Cartoon Hangover: Bravest Warriors, created by Pendleton Ward; SuperFuckers, created by James Kochalka; and Too Cool! Cartoons, an incubator featuring content from different animators.[18]Bravest Warriors premiered on November 8, 2012 and SuperFuckers premiered on November 30, 2012.
In July 2013 as part of Too Cool! Cartoons Cartoon Hangover premiered the first part of the 10-minute short film, Bee and PuppyCat created by Natasha Allegri. Due to its popularity, in November 2013 Frederator launched a Kickstarter to fund a first season of the series,[19] which was successful and raised $872,133 toward more episodes of the show. The project was the most funded animation and web series Kickstarter at the conclusion, and the fourth most-funded Film/Video project.[20]
In 2013, Frederator launched a digital-only ebook company, Frederator Books. Frederator Books published its first title, "The Lieography of Babe Ruth" in March 2013.[citation needed]
In 2014, Frederator announced the launch of The Channel Frederator Network, a Multi Channel Network (MCN) of independently owned animation channels on YouTube.[21] Since its start, Channel Frederator Network has generated more than one billion views, and averages more than 30 million views a month, across its network of more than 200 channels.[22] Some of its leading channels are FilmCow (just over 1 million subscribers), Cartoon Hangover (over 1 million subscribers),[23] and Simon's Cat (over 2,800,000 subscribers),[24] which is YouTube's #2 animated channel.[25] Once part of the network, Frederator handles all advertising and distribution for its channels on YouTube, promoting the show and its licensed merchandise.[26]
As of 2016, Mexican animation studio Ánima Estudios and Frederator Studios have launched a new YouTube network, called Átomo Network, focusing on Spanish-language content.[27]
Acquisition by Rainmaker; Wow Unlimited merger, and Kartoon Studios ownership
In December 2016, Canadian studio Rainmaker Entertainment (now, and originally known as, Mainframe) acquired Frederator Networks. Together with Ezrin Hirsh Entertainment (EHE), the three would be merged into the holding company Wow Unlimited Media, Inc..[28]
In August 2020, it was announced Fred Seibert would resign as CEO of Frederator Studios. Michael Hirsh, co-founder of Canadian studio Nelvana, would take over.[29]
On October 27, 2021, Genius Brands (now Kartoon Studios) announced that it had agreed to acquire Wow Unlimited Media for C$66 million (US$53 million), with the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.[30] The acquisition was completed on April 7, 2022.[31]
In January 2023, 50% of the rights to Bravest Warriors and Bee and Puppycat was sold to Japanese studio Toho International.[32]
^Karp, David; Alexandria, Julie (May 27, 2008). David Karp and Tumblr (Video). Wallstrip. Event occurs at 1:30. Retrieved February 24, 2013. Sometime in 2006, we had a couple of weeks between contracts and said 'Let's see what we can do, let's see if we can built this thing', and we threw together the first working version of Tumblr.
