John Stamos Wants to Innovate the Way You Watch Local News and Weather
Christian Zilko
The number of streaming services competing for eyeballs and subscription dollars seems to grow every day. The crowded marketplace ensures that every streamer needs to find its own differentiating factor. Some compete for live sports rights, others give out free greeting cards, but only one managed to hire John Stamos.
Zeam, a new free streaming startup backed by Gray Television that focuses on offering local news, weather, sports, and entertainment content from local TV stations in a single app, has announced that Stamos is not only their company’s official spokesperson (he was the star of the streamer’s Super Bowl ad), he’s also now been given a fancy new title: Chief Innovation Officer.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Stamos explained exactly what he’ll be doing with the company. It sounds like he’ll be taking founder Jack Perry to a whole lot of Hollywood parties.
“My role at Zeam is to introduce powerhouse people in show business to the platform so we can expand and entertain the masses, while leaving the day-to-day content creation to the masterminds at Zeam,” he said. “Even before I was given the title of chief innovation officer, I was already introducing Jack to all my many contacts that I’ve worked with over the years. I knew that the business of show would understand and see the value in Zeam, and I was 100 percent right.”
Stamos did not elaborate on who else in the “business of show” has expressed interest in the startup. But the “Full House” star sees value in making it easier for people to access local news broadcasts to people who don’t have cable subscriptions or even TVs.
The service currently has access to 165 markets across the country, everywhere from San Francisco to Chicago to Tulsa to Wichita. Zeam also has some documentaries and general interest programming produced by local news stations across America, including high school sports re-runs and shows such as “100% Chance of Wine” and “Colonoscopy, Conversation & Care: The Plan, the Prep, and the Procedure.”
But why was Stamos a good fit? Perry says it’s because Stamos really “he understands the power of local.
“He understands that, you know, where there’s one ABC affiliate, there’s 209 other ABC affiliates, and that was a huge advantage as we started figuring out how to work together,” Perry told THR.
Stamos too though also is a “big fan” of local news. He thinks maybe the next Uncle Jesse is out there somewhere on public access.
“My first shot at showbiz was performing a puppet show at a church fair, which got covered by my local station,” Stamos said. “Seeing my face on TV gave me the confidence to chase my dream of becoming a television star — and also to lose the puppet act. Who knows, maybe there’s a young John Stamos out there, who just needs to see themselves on local news to gain the same sense of hope and confidence that I did.”
As part of the announcement, Zeam released the mockumentary short “Going Full Jack,” which follows Stamos as he meets “Chief Zeemer” Perry before playing him in a commercial. The actor joked that Perry is the first CEO he has been able to portray because “I’m usually too handsome to play the smart characters.” Watch it below.
