Superstar musician and actor, Tim McGraw, today announced the launch of Down Home, a new entertainment, media, and marketing company headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. The company is a collaborative effort between McGraw, with his management company EM.Co, and social content studio Shareability. Shareability’s founder, Tim Staples, is Down Home’s co-founder and CEO, while EM.Co’s Brian Kaplan, also a co-founder, will serve as Chief Strategy Officer.
Down Home is dedicated to connecting McGraw’s country music audience with Hollywood and brands by producing film, TV, and digital media that focuses on relatable stories that capture the essence and spirit of everyday Americans.
The new McGraw venture closed an investment and an innovative first-look deal with Skydance Media, David Ellison’s leading entertainment company. As part of the deal, Skydance will develop film and TV projects with Down Home as well as channel IP and other material to Down Home.
Down Home also secured a private investment from Nashville-based TriScore Entertainment and The Laurel Group, a boutique merchant bank that continues to advise the company. Skydance founder and CEO David Ellison will serve on the Down Home board.
“Country music has always been about storytelling,” says McGraw. “Our stories are honest vignettes of life and family and community. I think there’s a longing for that. For me, that’s Down Home. That’s how I grew up, those are the stories I like to tell, and that’s what I want our company to be about.”
Ellison says, “Tim McGraw is an outstanding artist and entertainer. He is truly gifted at telling stories across mediums that deeply connect with the audience and has built an unmatched community of fans around the world. We are thrilled to partner with him, Tim Staples, Brian Kaplan, and everyone at Down Home as they have created a dedicated infrastructure to tell stories across film, TV, and music, to fulfill a massive demand for authentic, inspiring stories.”
Adds Staples: “From 1883 to Friday Night Lights, or songs like ‘Humble and Kind’, Tim McGraw knows how to connect with this audience in a way that can be really powerful for both Hollywood and brands.”
Down Home has two scripted series in development with Skydance, with plans for features and animation to follow. The slate is led by Joel Bergvall, Down Home’s Head of Film and Television, who says, “People want stories that move them, and that starts with characters they can relate to. We’re focused on underdogs, unlikely heroes, and people striving for their sense of family, community, and belonging.”
The company also plans to establish a social content studio to nurture Nashville’s emerging talent, fostering connections across music, sports, entertainment, and brands. Says Kaplan, “We’re thrilled to be a part of the next chapter in Nashville’s evolution, empowering artists and visionaries to create a new hub for storytelling that combines talent, passion, and innovation.”
McGraw was represented in the transaction by EM.Co’s Scott Siman and Kelly Clague and continues his long-time affiliation with CAA.
He speaks more about his inspiration for the new venture in a video released today on the company’s web site, www.downhome.com.
About Tim McGraw: TIM MCGRAW is a multi-GRAMMY® winning entertainer, multi-New York Times bestselling author, and a successful film and television actor whose films have grossed close to a billion dollars at the box office. He has sold more than 90 million records worldwide and dominated the radio charts with 46 number one singles and 19 number one albums. McGraw recently starred beside Sam Elliott and his wife Faith Hill in the Yellowstone prequel and three-time Emmy nominated 1883. His film credits include his break-through performance in Friday Night Lights, Oscar® winning The Blind Side, Country Strong, and The Shack. He composed and performed the closing credit song to the Oscar® winning documentary Free Solo. McGraw is one of the most successful touring acts in the history of country music. His projects have spawned some of the most meaningful songs of all time, including “Live Like You Were Dying” and “Humble and Kind,” whose messages continue to impact fans around the world. His newest single, “Standing Room Only,” just launched with the most first-week streams of any track in McGraw’s career.
About Shareability: Shareability is a social content studio and brand consultancy known for creating some of the most shared video campaigns of the last decade. The company’s data-fueled engagement strategy has driven over five billion organic views and 200 million shares with social hits including “Unexpected John Cena” with WWE star and actor John Cena, “Ronaldo in Disguise” with global football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, “Baby Olympics” with The Olympic Channel (IOC), “New Rules” social campaign with music superstar Dua Lipa, and “Photoshop Battles Live” the first live episodic series on Reddit. On the advisory side, Shareability’s brand consultancy works with major brands like Google, MARS, Adobe, and Intuit to maximize brand story performance. The company’s proprietary process bridges the gap between brand storytelling and performance marketing, helping brands create and optimize stories that increase consumer engagement, foster brand loyalty, and drive revenue growth. Based in Los Angeles, Shareability was co-founded by new media entrepreneur Tim Staples, author of the best-selling book “Break Through the Noise” and Oscar-winning documentarian Nick Reed. The company is helmed by Co-Presidents Erick Brownstein and Jen Garcia Allen.
About Skydance Media: Skydance is the diversified media company founded by David Ellison in 2010 to create high-quality, event-level entertainment for global audiences. The company first launched with Feature Films and has since strategically expanded to include Television, Interactive, Animation, New Media, and Sports, with studios in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Spain, and Canada. Skydance’s films include the box office record-breaking Top Gun: Maverick, The Adam Project, which debuted as the number one movie on Netflix, The Tomorrow War on Amazon Prime Video, which became the number one streaming film upon its release, as well as The Old Guard on Netflix and The Greatest Beer Run Ever on Apple TV+. The studio’s upcoming film slate includes Ghosted, The Family Plan, and The Gorge for Apple TV+; Heart of Stone, The Old Guard 2, and a reboot of the Spy Kids film franchise for Netflix; Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and the seventh and eighth installments of the Mission: Impossible global franchise. In total, Skydance’s films have earned more than $7 billion at the worldwide box office. Skydance Television is a leading supplier of premium scripted content across a range of platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV+. The studio’s current slate includes the Emmy-nominated series Grace and Frankie, which became Netflix’s longest running series following the release of its final season last year,as well as Foundation, Reacher, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Cross, Condor, The Big Door Prize, and FUBAR, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first ever scripted television series. Skydance Interactive creates and publishes original and IP-based virtual reality and other immersive video games including the top-selling, critically-acclaimed The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. The studio recently announced its next VR title: Behemoth. Skydance New Media creates narratively focused interactive experiences crafted as original series, putting the audience at the center of the action and adventure, with the first two productions being with Marvel Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games respectively. Skydance Sports develops premium scripted and unscripted sports-related content, documentaries, and events. The studio’s first two projects are for Prime Video and include the docuseries Good Rivals, which premiered last year, and the film Air, which chronicles the origins of the Air Jordan brand, starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and directed by Affleck. Skydance Animation develops and produces high-end feature films and television series with full production capability across two studios in Los Angeles and Madrid. The first two slated movies are Luck and Spellbound, the first short film is Blush, and the first series is Wondla, all premiering on Apple TV+. The Company’s investment partners include Tencent Holdings, Redbird Capital, CJ ENM, KKR and the Ellison Family.
