TV1

History
Largest Network
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On-TV Mag

About Gist Communications

In 1996, TV1.com founder and CEO Jonathan Greenberg started a New York-based company called Gist Communications. Gist was created to provide the best personalizable TV listings applications and original TV-related editorial content on the Internet. In 1997, Gist won the Webby Award for the Best TV site, and Entertainment Weekly dubbed Gist the “Best Online TV Listings.” By the spring of 2000, Gist and its network of prominent media partners using the site’s TV listings applications and content had grown to four million registered users and 2.4 million monthly visitors.

In starting TV1.com, Jonathan Greenberg is being joined by Gist’s former editorial director Cheryl Everette, who oversaw an editorial team of more than a dozen writers. Also working on the TV1.com website is technology chief Dave Ekhaus, who implemented Gist’s software development while creating and managing the back-end user database, which stored more than four million user-personalized profiles. Gist’s widely-licensed personalization applications allowed millions of people to get “Just the Gist” of the TV listings that they were most interested in. Gist’s listings applications and content were syndicated to more than a dozen clients, including EchoStar's satellite guide, Yahoo.com, AOL, Microsoft, NBC, CBS, USA Today, CNN and Hewlett-Packard.

Over the course of six years, Greenberg raised more than $20 million for Gist, and managed a staff of 80 people in New York and Germany. During that period, Gist became the leading innovator in TV listings applications.

Gist Built Web’s Largest Network of TV Websites

According to a “roll-up” report done by Nielsen/NetRatings, Gists’ sites surpassed TV Guide Onlines’ sites in monthly visitors in March, 2000. At that time, Gist’s network included Gist.com, as well as Yahoo.com, CNN.com, USA Today.com and others.

Gist Was the Market Leader for Online TV Listings

According to a “roll-up” report done by Nielsen/NetRatings in March, 2000, Gist’s sites surpassed TV Guide Online’s sites in monthly visitors. At that time, Gist’s network included Gist.com, as well as Yahoo.com, CNN.com, USAToday.com and others.

1st to allow Internet users to customize and save listings preferences by channel, genre, and cable system
1st to deploy TV Listings for all 11,000+ cable systems in the U.S.
1st to deliver personalizable listings over the Internet into a TV set-top box (via NetChannel and later Worldgate) and through a PDA (AvantGo)
1st U.S. company to deploy customized TV listings application in Europe (in France and Germany)
1st to send e-mail subscriptions containing personalized listings
1st in market share for online TV listings in the United States
1st to create an on-screen Interactive TV Magazine (for Echostar)

Gist’s Partners

Gist licensed its TV listings applications and original entertainment content and reviews to many of the leading companies in the world of new media. This is a partial list of clients that Gist had licensing agreements with.

TV Fan Clubs Applications

User-generated Hot List Application