Joining The Dots .tv

Joining the dots tv

Joining the Dots forming a picture

MercuryMedia’s joint venture with Aggregator TV, ‘joiningthedots.tv’ is a new broadband documentary channel designed for documentary lovers by documentary professionals. An alternative to the ‘human interest’ factual offerings of the major terrestrial and cable and satellite channels, joiningthedots.tv offers its viewers solid, contemporary documentaries they can no longer find on TV.

Bypassing the gatekeepers of television, it aims to deliver the best documentary programming through broadband, IPTV, mobile and in-flight. It will be offered globally to the public from February 2007, on both a subscription and pay-as-you-go basis. Despite the demise of traditional documentary on traditional TV, joiningthedots.tv believes that demand for documentary has never been greater.

“Today’s TV schedules are driven by ratings and increasingly present a banal blend of soaps, gossip and reality shows, resulting in very limited space for high quality, independent factual programming. We believe that broadband is the natural space for documentary and we are excited to be co-venturing with Aggregator to create a permanent showcase for all kinds of factual films,” says Tim Sparke, Mercury’s MD. “Having released the Loose Change documentary series and attracted over 30 million online viewers, we know that broadband provides the direct and independent route to the viewer that our genre of programming needs and deserves.”

3rd November 2006, Sheffield, UK

MercuryMedia’s Managing Director, Tim Sparke, spoke at the ‘Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival’ forming part of a panel called ‘Off the Box’ which focussed on alternative distribution. The Joining The Dots concept was enthusiastically received.

4th November 2006 Leipzig, Germany

Following Sheffield, Tim Sparke then flew to Germany to participate in a debate as to whether the new home for documentaries would be broadband or television. Tim evangelized about the JTD venture and the new opportunities it offers for documentary lovers and producers.