Sanjay Sharma, formerly EVP of strategy and business development at Machinima, brought his deep experience with multichannel networks to All Def Digital. He’s partnered with Russell Simmons on the startup, which is making an aggressive play as a multicultural, multiplatform media company with franchises in digital media, social video, live events, TV and film. All Def provides content to HBO, Spotify, Seeso, Fusion TV and MTV. How successful is it? The All Def network generated more than 300 million views last month across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. www.alldefdigital.com
What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? Grappling with the growing dominance of digital and social video.
What do you like to do when you’re not working? Almost always working! But when i’m not, watch movies/tv and listen to music, hang out with my kids.
What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? Watched Get Out 2x in theater; currently binging Patriot on Amazon; listening to Mick Jenkins, Appleby, Jarvis Cocker and Xavier Omar on Spotify; Theotis Beasely and Blue The Great on Instagram; Combat Jack, Joe Budden and Brilliant Idiots podcast; All Def Digital video content daily on Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat; and just read and loved In Times of Terror, Wage Beauty by Mark Gonzales.
What’s your best advice for others in this business? Stay on your grind. And know what your grind is —what do you love to do, what makes you smile, what gets you out of bed?
