Background and founding (2011–2012) SourceFed was an idea
Philip DeFranco had been considering as an evolution of his own YouTube series,
The Philip DeFranco Show (
PDS). In an interview with
Forbes, DeFranco stated that he originally wanted to turn his daily show into several daily segments. He recalled there was confusion among his audience when this format was tested, convincing DeFranco that he would need to create a new series to not alienate, but grow his audience. Around this time, DeFranco also had plans to create a news network. In late 2011, YouTube began its $100 million funding of
original or premium content channels. Due to DeFranco's position as a YouTube partner, the website offered him funding for an original channel. The
SourceFed channel, based on a blog of the same name, was one of these channels. DeFranco revealed that he acquired the funding to launch the channel by originally promising YouTube that the channel would be run as a "celebrity gossip channel", and that it would consist of a single show rather than multiple different shows. However, DeFranco negotiated for less funding, in return to have creative control over the channel's content. DeFranco also hand-picked the first six hosts of SourceFed. The SourceFed channel found early success in attracting a sizable subscriber base. DeFranco later created a spinoff channel,
SourceFedNerd (stylized as
SourceFedNERD), which was announced on May 16, 2013. A teaser trailer was released, promising the debut of the channel on May 20.
The New Movie Thing Show,
The SourceFed Movie Club, and
#TableTalk were moved from the original SourceFed channel to the Nerd channel. The spinoff channel hosted a live version of the
#TableTalk series during the
YouTube Comedy Week in 2013. The online stream was received well, being successful in terms of both raw viewership, as well as viewer retention.
Revision3 / Seeker ownership (2013–2016) In June 2013,
Philip DeFranco sold SourceFed along with the other channels under his DeFranco Creative portfolio to
Revision3. DeFranco also became an executive of Revision3 and the Senior Vice President of Phil DeFranco Networks and Merchandise, a newly formed subsidiary of the former, as a result of the move. DeFranco's "sxephil" channel, on which he hosted the
PDS, was already signed under the Revision3 network. Revision3 itself was acquired by
Discovery Communications in 2012, which was noted by
The Verge to be Discovery's "first major play into the expanding web television [or digital media] market." By the beginning of 2014, Discovery began calling its digital branch by the name Discovery Digital Networks in their company blog. While discussing the dissolution of SourceFed Studios, DeFranco retrospectively detailed that after selling his DeFranco Creative umbrella to Revision3, he began to have less involvement in SourceFed, before having no involvement at all. On September 19, 2013, the SourceFedNerd channel reached 500,000 subscribers. By 2016, Discovery eventually renamed Revision3 and DeFranco Creative as
Seeker and SourceFed Studios, respectively. SourceFed Studios encapsulated SourceFed and Nerd, as well as the
PDS.
Group Nine Media merger and cancellation (2016–2017) Discovery Digital Networks ceased to exist in late 2016, as
Discovery Communications sold its assets into a new digital media
holding company,
Group Nine Media. Group Nine therefore merged
Thrillist Media Group,
NowThis Media, and
The Dodo with Discovery's
Seeker and SourceFed Studios. Although SourceFed doubled its video views year-over-year, Discovery's
CCO Paul Guyardo stated that the merger occurred due to a need for "more scale, more brand and more resources." DeFranco clarified on Twitter that he had no involvement with the decision to dissolve SourceFed Studios. On May 4, the SourceFed Nerd channel was rebranded as NowThis Nerd without prior knowledge and against the wishes of the former hosts. This rebranding received backlash from viewers and former hosts. On July 3, 2017, NowThis Nerd reverted the channel back to SourceFed Nerd and deleted the content made since the rebranding. The SourceFed Nerd channel was left up to serve as an archive of the original content and NowThis Nerd became its own separate channel. ==Channels and hosting==