people close to donald trump have made overtures to media executives in recent months about the possibility of launching a media venture to capitalize on the republican presidential candidate<u+2019>s appeal, people familiar with the matter say. jared kushner, mr. trump<u+2019>s son-in-law who is also a close adviser to the gop nominee, reached out to prominent investment banker aryeh bourkoff within the past few months to discuss the prospect of creating such a business after the election, the people said. mr. kushner, a scion of a real-estate family with his own holdings in both real estate and media, and mr. bourkoff, the chief executive of liontree advisors llc, a boutique investment bank known for its work on big media deals, are friends. they met for a cup of coffee, but mr. bourkoff wasn<u+2019>t interested and didn<u+2019>t pursue the project, the people said. an adviser to mr. trump<u+2019>s campaign said the topic hasn<u+2019>t been discussed. <u+201c>mr. trump is only focused on the issues and winning the election on nov. 8,<u+201d> the adviser said. the primary business model that was being explored was a subscription online video service similar to glenn beck <u+2019>s gbtv, which later became theblaze, according to the people familiar with the matter. it might be possible to use such a venture as a launchpad for a cable-tv channel. separately, trump campaign officials also reached out to a subscription streaming technology provider within the past three to four weeks to explore such a digital model for mr. trump, according to another person familiar with the matter. the financial times on monday reported on mr. kushner<u+2019>s meeting with mr. bourkoff. the trump camp has been talking internally for some time about a potential media venture that would build on his populist appeal and the large crowds and fervent support he<u+2019>s drawn, according to the people familiar with the matter. still, there is no evidence of business planning beyond these preliminary conversations. and in an interview last month, mr. trump strongly denied the notion he had plans for a postelection media business, saying the idea of running for president to launch a tv network was ridiculous. <u+201c><u+2018>do you think i would do all this for tv?<u+201d> mr. trump said. <u+201c>i<u+2019>m out here every day doing this to bring positive change for our country. that tv talk is ridiculous.<u+201d> mr. trump noted he gave up a lucrative tv show, <u+201c>the apprentice,<u+201d> which he still co-owns, to run for president. because the speculation intensified with the naming of breitbart news<u+2019> stephen bannon as campaign chief executive, insiders at trump headquarters say mr. bannon has been adamant in his response, often repeating: <u+201c>we are going to the white house.<u+201d> during the campaign mr. bannon has taken leave as chairman of breitbart news. as mr. trump<u+2019>s standing in the polls has slipped in recent weeks, he has been campaigning in a style aimed primarily at pleasing his core base, rather than expanding the tent to moderates and independents, many observers say. that has fueled the speculation that he is cultivating a ready audience should he pursue a media venture after the election. the media business can be brutal. in cable television, entrepreneurs must make large investments and get their channels carried by satellite and cable tv distributors. as cord-cutting picks up, those pay tv providers nowadays are looking to trim back channels, not add more. that said, mr. trump has powerful allies in the tv world including roger ailes, who was ousted this summer as the chief of fox news, and top talent at that cable news network. the digital media landscape may offer easier startup opportunities . mr. beck<u+2019>s venture, gbtv, which launched in 2011, was able to be profitable early on by getting hundreds of thousands of fans to pay $9.95 a month to watch the online videos. building on this base, the channel then expanded to traditional television, with carriage on major pay-tv distributors like dish network . speculation of mr. trump<u+2019>s media ambitions have been swirling throughout the campaign. in june, vanity fair also reported on the possibility of a trump media business. former republican candidates sarah palin and herman cain launched subscription services with streaming video provider tapp a couple of years ago, though those faded away after some time. if mr. trump were to pursue such an offering, there are a number of streaming providers who have built technology to launch such services. in addition to tapp, bamtech, a streaming media unit created by major league baseball and recently backed by walt disney co. , powers such services as mr. beck<u+2019>s theblaze and world wrestling entertainment<u+2019>s streaming network. verizon communications <u+2019> verizon digital media services arm, pivotshare, neulion and time warner -backed istreamplanet also offer similar streaming technology. write to keach hagey at keach.hagey@wsj.com , shalini ramachandran at shalini.ramachandran@wsj.com and monica langley at monica.langley@wsj.com
trump camp explored possible trump tv venture - wsj
keach hagey shalini ramachandran monica langley