​Participant Media’s millennial-targeted network, launched last year, attended upfronts this week to announce a greenlit Sky Vision co-production, new research from Nielsen and 300 hours of original programming, including 11 projects in development.

The Pivot/Sky series is “Fortitude,” a drama covering climate change and murder, starring Stanley Tucci and Michael Gambon. BSkyB’s Sky Atlantic commissioned “Fortitude” in its push for more programming and Pivot will be the exclusive U.S. distributor for the TV series.


Pivot, still not quite a year old, also has 11 series in development, including projects from Funny or Die and FremantleMedia, stressing that its engaged millennial audience offers a connection to advertisers and potential sponsors of the network and its new shows. Scripted series in development range from a comedy competition show to a fish-out-of-water scenario when an American family moves to Russia, and an unscripted look at the employees in Colonial Williamsburg to Funny or Die’s “America’s Got Issues,” where comedians and experts reflect on social issues. Pivot also plans on airing The Peabody Awards telecast this June.

“Our second slate demonstrates our significant investment in, and commitment to, groundbreaking content for the thought-leading segment of Generation Y we call ‘Upstanders,’” said Pivot President Evan Shapiro. “We believe that a story well told can change the world. Pivot’s programming is meant to spark conversation among the very people most likely to create that change.”

New series with premiere dates attached include “Human Resources,” billed as a “docu-comedy” set to debut in August. The series follows entrepreneur Tom Szaky at TerraCycle, a multi-million-dollar company dedicated to the environment and recycling initiatives. “Welcome to Fairfax,” coming this October, is a docu-series set in Los Angeles’ Fairfax arts district. Meghan McCain’s “TakePartLive” and Pivot’s original series “Please Like Me” will also return to the schedule.

Pivot also presented the “Generation Why Segmentation Report,” a study conducted with Nielsen of adults 18-34 regarding brand awareness and social media use. The study broke down the audience segment into three parts, the most passionate subsection being the Upstanders, who are more engaged in social causes than their peers, more active on social media and more loyal to brands with higher social values.

Read more at Variety and Ad Age.

Brief Take: Pivot’s goal, when launched, was to provide millennials with socially conscious programming in the hopes of inspiring change. Targeting the coveted 18-34 demographic, Pivot plans to provide advertisers a solid opportunity to partner with the network in order to reach an engaged and involved millennial TV base.

[Image courtesy of Pivot]

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