How important is it for Dekkoo to be creating, and not just acquiring, content?
You have a well-regarded Memphis, Tenn.-set series in Morgan Jon Fox's Feral, and a dating show, Love Is Blind, that's the first I've ever seen to feature a wrestling lesson as a blind date. I could be working in the Bahamas if I wanted to be. In this model, you don't have to be in L.A. Why is Dekkoo based in Philadelphia? Did you just not want to move? The ability to deliver a quality streaming experience, where users can access it easily, in a way that they're used to doing it from their different devices, is where the challenge lies. So sites like Shudder or Filmstruck pop up, who cater to that specific audience. What's fun right now is that people who are true fans of a certain genre of film, for example, can't get as in-depth as they would like with a Netflix or a Hulu, because they're catering to the widest audience possible. Streaming technology has been a huge disrupter in the way movies and series are distributed. Dekkoo is an additional experience for someone who's very, very interested in cinema for gay men. When you go to a Netflix and you look in the LGBT section, you'll say, 'Well, OK, half this is lesbian content.' It's not just one size fits all. And every letter is thrown into that pool. So what you ended up getting was a lot of the same content. We found that large streaming platforms, like a Netflix or a Hulu, while they had LGBT and LGBTQ sections, it wasn't their focal point.
What's the rationale for a streaming service specifically tailored to gay men? We came across a Hindi slang word called dekka, and it means take a glance at something, and we thought that was an interesting word. Here, edited and condensed, is their conversation. Sokel spoke with Ellen Gray about why the niche approach matters, and how it's paying off. Sokel, an Oreland native and Temple graduate whose first career was as a musician (AM/FM, Franklin), is now chief operating officer of Dekkoo. So here's a point of Philadelphia Pride: The city's home to a streaming video service - think Netflix or Hulu, but smaller - that's tailored to gay men.ĭekkoo (pronounced DEK-oo) is the brainchild of Derek Curl, a producer and businessman who, after his company bought Philadelphia's TLA Entertainment Group in 2014, set out to establish a platform for gay cinema with the help of TLA's then-general manager, Brian Sokel.