Revision3 raises $8M more for niche TV

Revision3, a San Francisco company creating high-quality video shows on niche topics, has raised $8 million more from investors.

Like several other companies, including Podtech (see our coverage) and Next New Networks (our coverage), its seeks to exploit the trend toward niche video viewing. Revision3’s own slant has been toward serial content, with regular hosts of shows lasting between 20 minutes and an hour. They include the geek show “Diggnation,” and cooking show “Ctrl-Alt-Chicken.” The idea is that loyal viewers subscribe to the shows and download them for regular viewing via TiVo or on mobile devices such as their iPod.

The question remains whether Revision3 can launch other shows that are as popular as Diggnation– especially at a time when so many other companies are producing video content now.

The company, started by the co-founders of news ranking site Digg, raised $1 million last year (see VentureBeat’s coverage). The latest funding matches the $8 million funding that Next New Network got several months ago.

The dough comes from previous backer Greylock, and several of the angel investors, chief executive Jay Adelson told VentureBeat. He said the company’s value jumped significantly. David Sze and James Slavet, of Greylock have joined the board. Greylock is also a backer of Digg.

Adelson said two of the company’s ten shows in production are now profitable. The experience has provided the company with enough evidence that the overall business model will work, he says. The shows make money through sponsorships, with their hosts taking break periodic breaks from programming to discuss sponsors in a conversational way. Sponsors include GoDaddy, Sony, Microsoft and Verizon. The company as a whole is not yet profitable, but he said the funding is enough to help the company get there. Viewers are downloading two million shows a month. The majority are RSS subscribers, downloading shows and watching them via iTunes, for example. The company hopes to distinguish itself by producing high-definition, professional quality shows.