You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. So I gotta tell you. As I was reading in on this next guest, I saw Spirits Network and then I saw O T T platforms like water. We just talking about media. Are we talking about Booze? We're talking about both. That's like the dynamic duo. I love it. Nick Buzzle is the co founder and CEO of Spirits Network. He joins us on the phone from New York City. All right, Nick, so
tell us what Spirits Network is all about. Well, thanks for having me. And Spirits Network is the first shoppable streaming platform for premium spirits where you can watch and purchase with two hour home delivery in over fifty cities in the US. We are imagine Netflix meets birch Box. We are experienced driven and you can watch all of our great programming from documentaries to expert to celebrity and you can actually try everything you see right in from
the comfort of your home. So you're watching a program, so, so help me out. So I'm a consumer. So I'm watching a program and I see something, and so then I order and I get it or how does it? Try. Imagine you're watching either on your Apple TV, your Apple iOS, or your Android device, and you are watching a great documentary.
For example, we have a series called Science of Spirits where we talk about how spirits are made, and we feature both craft and commercial distilleries, and you are watching and learning about it, and you can literally click with your with your finger on your phone and with your remote from your Apple TV and right on your screen purchase that spirit and it's delivered right to your home
how quickly in most most cities within two hours. We also have a monthly bottle service, so if you're into exploring and discovering, and we're covering both whiskey, tequila, rum mescal, you can actually have a bottle of the month the livered to your home every month, handpicked by experts based
on your flavor profile, so you tell us. Just like when you become a member of Spotify or Apple Music, we ask you some questions about your taste when you come in, and everything we're doing is personalized to what you like, and we're helping you explore and discover, but you're also entertained. We have over a hundred hours of
programming and everything is shoppable. All right. So, Nick, you are well experienced in the media business, and you know, as I look back at your your bio and your CV, you have really been on the cutting edge, it feels like in many ways, especially in terms of both how we consume but also how content is created and distributed.
This is such a fascinating moment. I mean, I think about it even for us sort of what we do every day in the different ways that we try and get people to consume what we do, whether it's on video via YouTube or you know, linear radio or traditional radio, directional radio, I should say, out of that radio, podcast, etcetera. Help us understand what you make of all of this disruption. How do you sort of separate, as it were, the
signal from the noise In terms of what's working now? Well, I think we're in the Obviously, we've we've seen the golden age of content for the last uh, you know, five ten years, and now I think we're in the golden age of distribution. Uh. Consumers now more than ever, have more choice than ever. But I also think discovery and finding things that are right for you have become a bigger challenge. Everybody from Netflix to Hulu, to Amazon,
to the new Peacocks service. You know, they're attempting to be everything to everyone, which is a tough task, and as I'm sure you know, there's a lot of content that they need to make and stand out with. But I think at the end, the consumer is going to make the decision based on value. But I also think
based on their personal choices and taste. I think people are interested in hitch programming, and I think there's still a lot of areas of underserved um, which is why we decided to start with the world of premium spirits and accessible luxury, because I do believe that's an area where there's a lot of demand but very little supply. But I think you're going to continue to see more.
I mean, I think there's been everything from hypothesis that will go from a thousand channels of kind of traditional cable all the way to potentially millions of apps of these O T T tiles or these O T T channels that has something for everyone. Yeah, I do feel like it's going to be this menu, write this vast menu.
It's already rather large, but it is going to be segmented, so it's not so simple as sports, but it's you know, if I'm really into football for I'm really into basis, Like, you're just going to be able to really find your niche programming that you really really love and you're just gonna be all in on it. Having said that, Nick, I'm curious about your audience. Give me an idea of the number of subscribers that you've got. So you've got the video platform. That's one metric, but then that metric
turns into actual purchases. What are you seeing there? What kind of numbers can you give us that show us either you know, how you're doing. Yeah, well, we've just started. We've been live for approximately three and a half months, and we've been rolling out different aspects of our platform over the last year, so we're essentially just at the beginning and we've seen thousands of people sign up across the US. One of the challenges with Spirits is obviously
there is regulations. So we are able to service about seventeen states, uh, New York and California being one of them, are two of them. We also have the ability to deliver content to anybody across the US, but not everyone has the opportunity to purchase we've seen a lot of different purchase happening, mostly higher end spirits. Uh. You know, our average cart sizes around two and thirty dollars a user,
which is pretty high. Um. We've also seen a lot of excitement around um the women's category, especially one of our shows, The Women's Whiskey Revolution, which features all of these trailblazing women in the category of bourbon and whiskey. And it's all about bringing community together but also helping to really include women in the conversation and help women that want to explore it feel welcome and open to
do so. So we've got something for everyone, everything from long form documentaries that we've paired with Spirits too, topical elements where we've got you know, the number one Bourbon critic in the world, Fred Minick, and the number one Spirits critic in the world, Flavian Descipline, hand picking items for you. So imagine having an experience where it's really for us, by us. It's four Spirits enthusiasts by Spirits enthusiasts, and we're just getting started and we're very excited. All right.
Nick Buzzle, great to catch up with you. Co founder CEO of Spirits Network, he joined us on the phone from New York City. Such a fascinating concept in many ways. I mean, I will say from my personal experience, I take your point Carol about like, oh, there's all these different things you can do, but how do you ultimately Yeah, I don't know if this happens to you. Maybe I'm just not quite as decisive. But I feel like I can sit for half an hour just with Netflix and
be like, Mmm, that's not exactly what I want. No, that's not exactly what I want. No, maybe, and then I end up like watching an old not anymore but like thirty Rock or like Parks and Wreck or something. He's like, then I gotta go to sleep. We do it all the time. It's like you revert back to those things that you really know and love. I mean, I can't tell you how many times there's a series that we've watched them, like, yeah, let's watch let's just watch one more. Let's just watch one and then I
gotta get to bed, you know. Like, so I do wonder about the sort of the discover ability. I mean, even when you and I talked about podcasts, You're like, I don't know how to pick a podcast. I did I said, I'm like overwhelmed by it. I'm like, can you, you know, kind of curate for me, Like it's something I should go listen to. Not everyone has a personal curator like you. I'm a very lucky individual.