Rooftop Media was an audio and video comedy company founded in 2006. It provided a platform for standup comedians to showcase their talent online and gain a new source of income by attracting an online audience. It did that by recording comedians at clubs across the country and playing the videos on their platform through live broadcast or on-demand service.
The company focused on live performances and aimed to transform the production of media programming. Rooftop’s media partners included Apple Inc, Yahoo, and streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora.
In 2014, Rooftop Media was acquired by the leading e-commerce company Amazon for an undisclosed amount of money. This was another step in Amazon’s aggressive campaign to widen the selection of original content available on its services including Amazon Prime Instant Video and Audible.
At the time Amazon was slowly building up its entertainment offerings to reach its goals of becoming a media powerhouse. Rooftop was acquired by Amazon’s audiobooks service Audible which Amazon had bought for $300 million in 2008. Audible’s founder claimed that Rooftop Media’s content and pool of talent had attracted them to it and played big part in the decision.
After the acquisition, Rooftop’s content became a part of the fast-growing Audible platform. This worked in favor of the company and connected it to a larger audience, according to the CEO of Rooftop.
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