After Finding Success With 'History Hit' Podcast, Dan Snow Turns To Video

Dan Snow has tapped into his passion for history to become one of the U.K.'s best-known televison hosts and the creative force behind the hit podcast "History Hit." Now, the 38-year-old Brit, whom Americans might recognize from PBS, National Geographic and the History Network among others, is betting that his fellow enthusiasts will subscribe to a Netflix-like service that he's developing called HistoryHit.TV.

Like Netflix, HistoryHit.tv will be funded solely by monthly subscription fees. The service, which is being funded through crowdfunding and angel investors, is due to launch in November with a big marketing push slated for the end of the year. It will donate 10 percent of its profits to history education programs around the world.

HistoryHit.TV is an intriguing idea that's risky. Snow is planning to create both original programs and license existing history shows, both of which aren't going to be cheap to do. There's also the technical infrastructure (servers, software, etc.) to consider. As anyone who's either launched or revamped a large web platform will tell you, there are a thousand things that can and will go wrong. Snow, who has never been in business before, isn't oblivious to these challenges which is why he has brought in professional managers.

Even so, if anyone can make this niche channel work, it's Dan Snow.

Snow’s passion for history is infectious, and his background in broadcasting is unique. His Twitter handle is @TheHistoryGuy. When Snow was growing up, his parents would often take Snow and his siblings to historical monuments and museums on the weekends. Snow's father Peter Snow and his mother Ann MacMillan spend decades as broadcast journalists for the BBC and Canadian Broadcast Corp respectively. As if that weren't enough, his Aunt Margaret MacMillan is a respected Oxford historian and let's not forget his illustrious ancestor David Lloyd George, the U.K.'s Prime Minister during World War I. ...