Yahoo Lifestyle Self-Help Vet Tony Robbins Launching FAST Channel With Paramount Global, With An Assist From Brett Ratner
Tony Robbins, the noted life coach and self-help author, is teaming with Paramount Global to launch a FAST channel.
The channel, which will be available this summer on Pluto TV, Prime Video, Plex and Roku, will offer access to Robbins’ seminars for the first time. It will feature programming spanning more than four decades.
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Robbins announced the venture Wednesday at a panel during NATPE and the RealScreen Summit in Miami, appearing alongside Dan Cohen, Paramount’s Chief Content Licensing Officer.
In the conversation, the partners mentioned numerous times that filmmaker Brett Ratner played a key role in connecting Robbins with Paramount after the company initiated the idea and sought buy-in from Robbins. The exact nature of his involvement was not specified during the session, but he will lend a hand with production and planning. The Rush Hour director was spotted amongst NATPE attendees in the lobby of the InterContinental Hotel. The channel with Robbins, a longtime friend of Ratner’s, is the second splashy project for him in a span of weeks, following news about spearheading an authorized Melania Trump docuseries for Amazon.
Ratner’s name did not appear in a press release announcing the channel launch and the NATPE session. His return to working follows a retreat after 2017 allegations of sexual misconduct at the height of the MeToo movement. Paramount reps did not immediately respond to Deadline’s inquiries about the official role Ratner will have in the channel.
Cohen and Robbins both noted that multiple notable personalities aside from Robbins will appear, but he will curate those selections.
Paramount has drawn on its assets for previous FAST channels centered on Miramax and National Lampoon. The march of the FAST business toward billions in annual revenue began a decade ago on early platforms like Pluto, which Paramount acquired in 2019.
Robbins has kept his materials and teachings largely under wraps except for clients willing to pay thousands to attend in-person sessions. In 2016, he granted access to filmmaker Joe Berlinger for the Netflix documentary Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru, which explored the terrain of the people making pilgrimages to the Robbins events.
”If you see that, it will give you a taste of what we’re doing” on the channel, Robbins said.
Cohen said the intensity of Robbins’ interactions and work with followers is unusual across the dial. “You’re really not seeing much of that on television these days,” he said.
Movies, vintage Robbins clips and occasional live events are also in the offing, Cohen said.
Robbins didn’t just license his name and walk away, Cohen said, but instead has leaned into the opportunity and put in daily work. “That’s why I am so convinced this is going to cut through,” the exec said.
Peter White contributed to this report.
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