Bored of HGTV but still want interior design shows? This North Carolina-based streaming network has got you covered.
The Design Network, founded in 2013 by Furnitureland South co-owner Jason Harris, aims to entertain and inform people with design- and lifestyle-specific content, with shows ranging from home organization to landscaping to entertaining.
Now, almost a decade in, TDN reaches 1.5 million unique people per month. It just premiered a new show, exclusively on Samsung TV+, with Grammy winner Darius Rucker called “Rucker’s Reno.”
“Rucker’s Reno,” which premiered on May 16 and is now running on all streaming platforms featuring TDN, led to a 250% increase in viewership, Harris said.
New TV show combines Charleston's history with design elements
“Rucker’s Reno” follows the musician — known for fronting the band Hootie & The Blowfish and solo country songs like “Wagon Wheel” — as he restores a historic mansion in his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina.
As a Black man renovating a mansion built by slaves, the show explores the city’s history and how it has evolved from the time of slavery, using culture and design to do so. Rucker, with a design and renovation team and help from South Carolina Tourism, showcases different areas of Charleston and meets up with local chefs, entrepreneurs, fishermen and friends.
“It’s always an honor when I get to showcase my hometown of Charleston to the world, and I’m thankful to The Design Network for such a great platform to do just that,” Rucker said. “The team on this project was so talented and made it such a fun, creative process from start to finish. I can’t wait for everyone to see the transformation.”
Each of the six episodes takes a look at a specific space in Rucker’s home and connects it to Charleston.
“If it’s the kitchen, we’d make the episode all about the kitchen; we would showcase the before and the after and take that room as the theme to explore Charleston, its history, its culture and its characters within that food theme,” Harris explained.
The Design Network is plotting next steps for more international expansion
With “Rucker’s Reno” under its belt, TDN currently has over a dozen shows in production, Harris said.
The network has experienced other successes in recent years. Samsung expanded TDN into Canada and the United Kingdom, and Harris said it is preparing to launch the network in Australia and New Zealand. TDN employs 10 people full-time, he said. Most of the team is in the Triad at the Jamestown headquarters, but there are also employees in New York and Los Angeles.
“The pandemic created a real acceleration for both an interest in home and design as well as people cutting the cable cord and getting away from traditional cable satellite TV,” Harris said.
Furnitureland South CEO drew on business connections to help launch streaming network
Getting to this success for TDN has not been a straight path.
Harris had the idea to reach more people through a design-focused streaming network in 2012 and knew he had the necessary connections. His company, Furnitureland South, is the nation’s largest retail furniture store. At that year's furniture market in High Point, Harris met with 50 CEOs and pitched the idea of TDN, asking them to be co-founding sponsors giving $5,000 a month. Only five bought in, he said.
Harris did not let lack of support at the beginning stop him. He continued making other connections and began producing short-form content.
In 2014, TDN veered back in with Furnitureland South, as there were issues monetizing the network and building a big audience, Harris said. TDN experimented with some partner programs with the retailer; for example, TDN created a designer program as well as an e-commerce platform to integrate products into its programming.
Although it worked with hundreds of designers joining the purchasing program, it was not what Harris had intended for TDN to be. The programs still exist in another form at Furnitureland South, now called the trade direct program.
“It got a little bit convoluted and hard to understand for everybody. We made a big decision in early 2019 that we would just set this thing on its own two feet and make it an ad-supported TV network only,” Harris said.
Eight minutes of ads per hour are programmed into the network, and TDN gets some of its revenue from those ads. It also makes money from brand integration and partnerships. TDN began investing in longer-form content and figuring out how to take the content it already had and turn it into a channel, eventually making deals with Samsung TV+, among other streaming services.
There are two ways to tune into TDN. Viewers can access it on demand or on a linear channel on Samsung TV+. Harris notes that most of TDN’s viewership comes from that linear channel. TDN streams anytime for free on Samsung TV+, the Roku Channel, Amazon’s IMDbTV, Sling, Xumo, Vizio WatchFree+, Redbox, Plex and Rakuten TV. TDN can also be streamed on its website.
