Five hundred travel videos ought to be an asset. Stephen O’Shaughnessy had created them for websites he owned, a collection of cities ready to be watched elsewhere. Yet when he explored licensing the footage to larger publishers, a less picturesque task appeared. He needed somewhere to sell it. The internet could carry moving pictures around the world; arranging the transaction still involved a surprising amount of standing about.
That difficulty gave him the idea for VideoElephant. A producer with material to license and a publisher with space to fill had good reasons to meet. Making the introduction, and making it work repeatedly, could itself become a business. O’Shaughnessy had arrived at the problem as a supplier. He would build a company that worked between suppliers and buyers.
The distance from a travel-video collection to operating streaming channels is considerable. His route through it has involved a recurring question: what is preventing this footage from reaching another screen? Sometimes the answer was a contract. Sometimes it was the way the material was sold. More recently, it has been the considerable bother of running a television channel.
Five hundred films, one missing buyer
Before VideoElephant, O’Shaughnessy’s working life already crossed several parts of the media business. His experience includes music, digital publishing, digital advertising and video production. Earlier roles included running Webmatrix, founding TravelGuide.TV and working in product at music-video company MUZU.TV. Each put him near a different part of the journey between making something and persuading an audience to watch it.
VideoElephant was founded in Dublin in 2012. That February, it was among the young companies presenting at the DCU Ryan Academy’s Propeller accelerator mentor evening. There were introductions to make and a business to explain. The central proposition was straightforward enough: bring video from different owners together so publishers could obtain it through one place.
For a young company, the difficulty lies in getting both sides to agree. A publisher wants a worthwhile selection before committing. A content owner wants customers before supplying that selection. O’Shaughnessy’s own footage offered a starting point, but a useful marketplace needed other people’s work, other people’s trust and a reason for them to keep returning.
The early undertaking required persistence in a particularly uncinematic activity: securing agreements. A film may contain a splendid city skyline. Its route to another publisher can still depend on a person several levels up an organization signing a document. Even an elephant must wait for the paperwork.
The paperwork behind the picture
By June 2013, VideoElephant had put 50,000 videos into its system. O’Shaughnessy and co-founder Kate Doughan had an eight-person company, with investment from ACT Venture Capital, Enterprise Ireland and private investors. Deals with France 24, Australia’s ABC and National Geographic helped give the marketplace a broader selection. News, travel, sport and entertainment could sit within the same buying process.
The appeal to a newspaper group was practical. Negotiating separately with numerous video providers takes time. Bringing them together meant a customer could obtain material from several places through a single contract and delivery system. An editor trying to complete a page could spend less of the day becoming an amateur procurement department.
At the international launch in July, the business offered individual clips, subscriptions and bundles. Its collection included O’Shaughnessy’s 500 travel videos alongside footage from outside providers. The founder’s original problem had become one example within a wider catalog. Other producers could now use the route he had wanted for himself.
Customers subsequently changed the economics of the proposition. O’Shaughnessy had imagined selling individual pieces, a video equivalent of buying a stock photograph. Buyers began asking for bulk content. VideoElephant moved from a one-off licensing charge to a cost-per-thousand fee. The change followed the way publishers wanted to work: a continuing supply rather than a succession of isolated purchases.
In July 2019, the company raised €5.5 million in a round led by Act Venture Capital. It planned to almost double its workforce and develop its technology. Backers included Tony Smurfit and Hostelworld co-founder Tom Kennedy. The business had acquired a network beyond its original Dublin base, with offices then listed in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin and Sydney.
- 01MakeProducers create the video.
- 02ConnectVideoElephant licenses and delivers it.
- 03WatchPublishers and platforms reach viewers.
The remote control returns
O’Shaughnessy’s next move brought an old television habit into the picture. In September 2020, VideoElephant launched its own free streaming service. VideoElephant TV let viewers move between linear channels as well as choose material on demand. A library built for other businesses could also provide the programming for a viewing experience of its own.
His explanation began with customers. Streaming services needed content, particularly when they were trying to fill a channel throughout the day. The company already had a supply of short videos across different subjects. Bringing those pieces together in a continuous stream was another way to package the material it licensed.
O’Shaughnessy described a viewer dropping in for about twenty minutes to catch up on news or sport, perhaps during dinner or a work break. The use case was modest and recognizable. A person could want something to watch without wishing to conduct a committee meeting over which film deserved the evening.
The new service also demonstrated what a brand could do with its own footage. A channel could combine the customer’s material with video from the company’s library. O’Shaughnessy saw the service as a way to show that possibility in action. A working channel made the proposition easier to understand than another meeting about the theoretical merits of one.
By September 2021, VideoElephant had introduced a Channels marketplace with more than 150 licensable linear feeds. These included thematic programming, partner channels and customized offerings. Customers could license a continuous experience for their own platforms. The business was increasingly selling the arrangement of video as well as access to the individual pieces.
“Channels are a natural evolution of our core licensing businesses.”
Stephen O’Shaughnessy · September 2021
Somebody has to run the channel
The move into free ad-supported streaming television, usually shortened to FAST, created another set of tasks. Programming has to be selected and scheduled. Distribution partners have their own requirements. Advertising needs room in the running order. A large collection helps, but it does not automatically tell you what should play after the next break.
VideoElephant developed its own channels, including Travel Escapes, Beyond Paranormal and Real Crime Uncovered. Travel remained part of the offering, though the founder’s business had traveled some distance from its beginnings. By September 2024, the company was using its experience with owned channels to offer services to other content owners navigating the same operational demands.
There was a familiar problem underneath the new vocabulary. A publisher might have the material and the desire to reach viewers, yet lack the people or time to manage every distribution relationship. A company that had once brought content agreements together could take on more of those recurring responsibilities. The unit of work had grown from a clip to a schedule.
The team around O’Shaughnessy reflects those demands. Brian Cullinane leads the commercial operation; John Jordan is chief operating officer. Kate Doughan heads content, while Preeya Naul leads streaming partnerships and supply. Their responsibilities connect acquisition, operations and the platforms where a channel might appear. The founder’s original introduction between two parties now requires a continuing conversation among several.
In January 2025, VideoElephant assumed programming and distribution of the USA TODAY FAST channel and related OTT properties. It expanded an existing relationship with Gannett, which had already used the company’s short videos. The managed service included scheduling, distribution, reporting and promotional work. A publisher relationship could deepen without starting again from an unfamiliar premise.
The next screen
June 2026 brought another publisher agreement. The New York Post announced its first FAST channel in partnership with VideoElephant’s managed services operation. The plan called for programming drawn from the Post’s wider portfolio, including Page Six. VideoElephant would handle scheduling, distribution and monetization, extending a longstanding video relationship.
The announced channel package contained 150 hours of TV-ready material, with a planned monthly refresh of 20 percent. Those figures describe a continuing editorial obligation. Even a substantial initial supply needs renewal. A streaming channel asks its operator to think beyond launch day, when the announcement has been read and the next month’s schedule is approaching.
In August 2026, another programming development followed: the VideoElephant-operated USA TODAY channel announced it would carry the daily live show Battleground Midterms from August 31. The work now encompasses appointments in a running schedule as well as videos selected from a collection. A viewer arriving at a particular hour should find the program promised for that hour.
O’Shaughnessy remains founder and CEO, with his company biography placing him between Dublin and New York. The business serves publishers, streaming services and other screen owners internationally. Across those settings, the attraction of his original idea is easy to understand: useful video becomes more useful when the next person can actually get hold of it.
There is a satisfying continuity to the career. A founder encountered the limits of distributing his own work, then spent years building ways for other people to distribute theirs. The catalog grew. Customers asked to buy differently. Screens acquired schedules. The travel videos that started the story needed somewhere to go. O’Shaughnessy kept working on the journey.