By Cheval John | Vallano Media
This article was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence.
The final version was reviewed, edited and fact-checked by the author

Graphics created with AI-assisted design tools.
Visual concepts, editorial direction, composition, and final creative decisions were developed by Vallano Media.

When ESPN launched in 1979, the idea of dedicating an entire television network to sports was still a gamble.

The network ultimately demonstrated something important about specialized media: a passionate audience could support a destination built around its interests.

Nearly four decades later, entrepreneur Jon Steinberg made a different kind of media bet.

In 2016, Steinberg launched Cheddar, a digital-first business news network designed around the viewing habits of younger audiences.

Rather than trying to beat established financial networks such as CNBC and Bloomberg at the traditional cable television game, Cheddar built its strategy around an emerging reality: people were increasingly consuming video through streaming platforms, smartphones, computers, and social media.

Cheddar did not invent streaming, of course.

But it recognized early that changing distribution could create an opening in an established media industry.

That makes its rise more than a story about financial journalism.

It is a business case study about finding an underserved audience, building around changing consumer behavior, and understanding that distribution can sometimes be as important as the content itself.

It also has an interesting parallel in sports media.

Finding an Opportunity in an Established Market

Before founding Cheddar, Steinberg had already accumulated significant experience in digital media, including serving as president and chief operating officer of BuzzFeed and later leading Daily Mail North America.

That experience gave him a front-row view of changing audience habits.

With Cheddar, he bet that younger viewers could be reached with business news designed around digital distribution rather than the traditional cable model.

The network still covered financial markets, but its editorial universe stretched beyond stock prices and quarterly earnings.

Technology, startups, venture capital, entrepreneurship, media, consumer products, and innovation became important parts of the programming.

That distinction mattered.

Someone didn’t necessarily need to be an active stock trader to care about the next technology company, an emerging consumer brand, or an entrepreneur building a startup.

Cheddar was essentially broadening the definition of who might be interested in business television.

Built for Streaming From the Beginning

One of Cheddar’s most important advantages was that digital distribution wasn’t something added years after the network launched.

It was fundamental to the original concept.

Cheddar distributed programming through streaming services, connected television platforms, social media, and other digital outlets.

By the time Altice USA announced its acquisition of Cheddar in 2019, the company’s reach had become substantial.

Altice said Cheddar was available in approximately 40 million pay-TV homes, distributed through virtual television services including YouTube TV and Sling TV, and available through free streaming platforms including Pluto TV and the Roku Channel.

Altice also reported that Cheddar’s content generated more than 400 million monthly video views across social platforms at the time.

Those figures came from the acquiring company rather than an independent audience audit, but they illustrate how aggressively Cheddar had expanded beyond a conventional television channel.

The strategy was simple: don’t make the audience come looking for you.

Go where the audience already is.

Credibility in a New Format

Being digital-first did not mean abandoning the symbols associated with traditional financial journalism.

Cheddar established a major broadcasting presence on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

It also expanded its New York production footprint to locations including Nasdaq MarketSite and the Flatiron Building.

That was smart branding.

The NYSE gave a young streaming network an immediate visual connection to Wall Street, while Cheddar’s presentation, graphics, subject matter, and distribution strategy signaled that it wasn’t trying to recreate traditional financial television.

It wanted credibility without looking old.

That balance helped establish a recognizable identity in an industry already occupied by much larger competitors.

Where Sports Media Enters the Story

This is where Cheddar becomes especially interesting from a sports media perspective.

Cheddar did not create the streaming transformation in sports, nor did sports organizations simply copy its strategy.

The connection is more useful than that: both illustrate how media businesses responded to audiences gaining more control over where, when, and how they consumed content.

Sports organizations have faced many of the same questions.

What happens when fans no longer depend on one television package?

What happens when highlights are consumed on phones?

What happens when fans want interviews, documentaries, analysis, behind-the-scenes material, and live events across multiple platforms?

The answer increasingly has been for leagues, conferences, teams, and broadcasters to think beyond the traditional television channel.

Cheddar was confronting essentially the same distribution problem in business journalism.

It recognized that producing the content was only part of the job.

Making that content accessible was another part entirely.

Video Courtesy of Chat Sports YouTube Channel

Distribution as a Business Strategy

That distinction is easy to overlook.

A company can produce excellent journalism, a university can produce an excellent sporting event, and an independent creator can produce an excellent video.

None of that guarantees an audience will find it.

Distribution determines how easily that product travels.

Cheddar treated distribution as part of the product itself.

That approach helped the network appear in numerous places rather than depending on viewers developing one particular viewing habit.

For sports organizations, the comparison is particularly relevant because media distribution has become inseparable from the sports business.

Streaming services, conference networks, direct-to-consumer products, social media clips, team-produced documentaries, and athlete-created content all compete for a fan’s limited attention.

The platforms may be different, but the underlying business question remains remarkably similar:

Where is the audience, and how do we make it easier for them to reach us?

The $200 Million Milestone

Cheddar’s growth eventually attracted a much larger media company.

In June 2019, Altice USA completed its acquisition of Cheddar for $200 million, subject to customary closing adjustments.

For a company founded only three years earlier, the transaction represented a remarkable milestone.

It also provided evidence that digital-first distribution and a differentiated audience could create substantial business value even in a market dominated by established television networks.

But the acquisition was not the end of Cheddar’s story.

In April 2021, around the network’s fifth anniversary, the brand became Cheddar News.

By then, its coverage extended across business, technology, media, culture, politics, and other areas.

The evolution showed that Cheddar itself was continuing to change.

And that leads to perhaps the most important lesson in the entire story.

Being Early Doesn’t Mean You Can Stop Adapting

The media environment Cheddar entered in 2016 became dramatically more competitive.

Streaming services multiplied.

Podcasts became major sources of business information.

YouTube creators built their own media brands.

Newsletters gave individual writers direct access to audiences.

Social platforms turned entrepreneurs, executives, athletes, and analysts into publishers themselves.

Traditional media companies also became much more aggressive about streaming and digital distribution.

In other words, some of the characteristics that made Cheddar unusual in 2016 became increasingly normal.

That’s one of the paradoxes of innovation.

A company can correctly identify the future and still have to compete once everyone else arrives there.

Cheddar’s ownership changed again in December 2023 when Altice USA sold Cheddar News to Archetype.

Financial terms of that transaction were not disclosed.

The sale shouldn’t erase what Cheddar accomplished, nor should its earlier $200 million acquisition be treated as proof that the original model was permanently solved.

Together, those events tell a more useful business story.

Innovation creates an advantage.

It does not guarantee that the advantage lasts forever.

What Content Creators Can Learn From Cheddar

There are several lessons here for independent publishers, entrepreneurs, and digital creators.

The first is to look for audiences established competitors may be underserving.

Cheddar did not need every CNBC or Bloomberg viewer to switch networks.

It needed to establish a meaningful audience of its own.

Second, distribution deserves nearly as much thought as production.

Publishing an article isn’t a distribution strategy.

Neither is uploading a video and hoping people discover it.

Search, social media, newsletters, streaming platforms, partnerships, and direct audience relationships can all extend the life of the original content.

Third, differentiation matters.

Cheddar didn’t establish itself by simply becoming a smaller CNBC.

Its younger presentation, technology coverage, startup focus, and streaming-first distribution gave viewers a reason to understand the brand differently.

Finally, adaptation never ends.

The strategy that differentiates a company today may become standard industry practice tomorrow.

The Sports Business Lesson

That last lesson may be especially important in sports.

A league might sign an innovative streaming agreement.

A conference might build a successful digital network.

A university might develop an impressive in-house production operation.

But technology continues moving.

Audience habits continue changing.

The next distribution model eventually arrives.

That means the goal cannot simply be to “go digital” or “start streaming.”

Those are tools, not permanent strategies.

The deeper objective is understanding how the audience behaves and being willing to change as those behaviors change.

That was the opportunity Cheddar recognized in 2016.

Cheddar’s Story Is Still Being Written

Cheddar did not disappear after the 2023 ownership change.

The brand has continued operating and expanding its streaming distribution, remaining focused on areas including business, technology, finance, and innovation.

That makes Cheddar more interesting than a simple rise-and-fall story.

It began as a startup challenging assumptions about financial television.

Within three years, it was acquired for $200 million.

It subsequently expanded its editorial identity, changed ownership again, and continued operating in a media industry that looks considerably different from the one it entered.

Its trajectory illustrates both sides of disruption.

Recognizing change early can create enormous opportunity.

But eventually, everyone else recognizes the change too.

Final Thoughts

Cheddar’s rise was never simply about creating another financial news channel.

It was about recognizing that the relationship between audiences and media was changing.

The company understood that younger viewers could be interested in business, technology, entrepreneurship, and finance without consuming those subjects in the same way previous generations had.

And in that sense, its story connects naturally with sports.

Sports fans didn’t suddenly stop caring about sports when their viewing habits changed.

Business audiences didn’t suddenly stop caring about business when they moved away from traditional television.

The audience didn’t disappear.

The audience moved.

Cheddar’s bet was to move with it.

That remains a valuable lesson for media companies, sports organizations, entrepreneurs, and independent publishers today.

Getting ahead of the next change matters.

Understanding that you’ll eventually have to change again may matter even more.

Graphics created with AI-assisted design tools.
Visual concepts, editorial direction, composition, and final creative decisions were developed by Vallano Media.