Debra Borchardt
The longest-running marijuana media company High Times is launching an unfiltered “over-the-top” online streaming-video product called High Times TV. The channel is live now on tv.hightimes.com and available as an app for iOS, Apple TV, Android and Roku.
HTTV was created in order to give a home to the best cannabis-related videos across the internet. In turn, creators and fans will get a much-needed resource to find entertainment and information that continues to come under fire from traditional outlets that have tried to restrict content featuring marijuana. You may recall that recently, YouTube began deleting Spanish language cannabis related channels.
With a heavy focus on the end user, High Times partnered with Unreel to help develop HTTV apps. The platform has been integrated with Unreel’s digital ad networks – including Roku and Google Ad Manager – in an effort to create new monetization opportunities for creators in the space. Notable talent already using the platform include CustomGrow420, StrainCentral, Ruffhouse Studios, High Rise TV, Stoner Mom, The Green Market Report and That High Couple with new content from Now This Weed, Doug Benson’s ‘Getting Doug with High’ and more coming soon.
“While High Times has built a powerful subscriber base across print, digital and social media, it’s not enough to just produce content for those platforms,” said High Times CEO Adam Levin. “The huge demand for mobile-friendly premium video includes a real hunger for the cannabis-related content that social-media sites are all too often blocking. High Times’ new channel intends to satisfy that hunger, ensuring that we can reach our loyal audience wherever they may be, on whatever platform they use. It’s another way to serve our fans.”
Through a standalone, ad-supported web channel, High Times will aggregate and curate the best of that content in one place, providing a one-stop shop for fans and brands alike to connect with the best of Cannabis creative content. High Times TV will feature such content as cultivation and extraction lessons, comedy shorts, behind-the-scenes exclusives from High Times’ Cannabis Cup events, and vlogs from some of the industry’s most notable influencers
“Even in 2018, the truth about cannabis use is being silenced by major platforms,” said Joshua Young, founder of StrainCentral. “Social Media doesn’t want us to exist and propaganda is ruining society’s views on a harmless plant. Just as High Times has done since the 70’s, we’re here to provide a voice for the unspoken, and to champion this gift of the earth.”
“HTTV allows society to see actual insight into cannabis use and its users, and provides us creators with the means to keep up the fight,” said Young. “In a time where YouTube is demonetizing, and Instagram is purging our pages, High Times is a safe space.”
High Times recently launched a crowd funding campaign as it continues its plans to become a publicly traded company. Initial indications were that the company was met with a positive response from retail investors eager to get in early on a cannabis IPO.
.
