Photo by Olaf Growald
Showcase Home
Open for tours June 29 - July 21, 2019
It’s going to be easy to shop Fort Worth Magazine’s 2019 Fort Worth Showcase Home. Like the dining room set you see when you tour the home this summer? Or the throw pillows? You’ll be able to buy them online at a new web-based network, HDTV, founded by Showcase Home designer Donna Moss and producer Josh Mills, which will launch this summer.
Mills is shooting and producing 10 episodes of an HDTV series, “Best in Show Fort Worth,” around the 2019 Showcase Home, a 5,173-square-foot modern farmhouse under construction and being built by Heritage Homes in Colleyville. The series, and two more HDTV is producing on the construction of a modern home in Las Vegas and around the rehab of a historic home in Fort Worth’s Fairmount neighborhood, will be the first original content on HDTV. The two are also recruiting content from third-party producers.
Moss and Mills want “shoppability” to be a staple of the network, which they believe will differentiate it from competitors like HGTV and DIY. As viewers move through each episode and each room, they’ll see a listing of products that are used in the home. Viewers will be able to easily buy with “one-click” purchasing, while continuing to watch the show. “We don’t want you to leave” the show, Mills says. “We want you to keep watching the episode. All you’ve got to do [to purchase] is click it. That product is now ordered and on its way to you.”
Each product will carry endorsements from designers. The manufacturers will ship the products directly to the customers. HDTV will only handle custom-made inventory that’s “white labeled” by the home’s designers.
Mills’ crew, including a group of contract web designers, is preparing a prototype of the site that they’ll soon make available in a private launch before eventually going live. “Our biggest objective is getting the content needed to fill the network,” Mills said.
Mills is getting ready to shoot inside the Showcase Home at 208 Winnie Drive. Moss and her crew of 12 designers are each responsible for finishing one room in the home. As in the magazine’s long-running series of Dream Homes, the Showcase Home — a five-bedroom, 5 1/2-bath due to be complete this summer — is for sale and will be open for tours for one month to benefit a Wish with Wings. The home is listed at $1.89 million by Jeannie Anderson of The Jeannie Anderson Group at Keller Williams Realty.
Moss, Mills and their three partners — in creative, technology and post-production — see a big gap in the design television market. HGTV, which made Moss into a star with her own show, is largely focused on popular celeb hosts like Chip and Joanna Gaines. “They took all the design-centric stuff and just kicked it out,” Mills says.
Revenue streams will come from advertising from products integrated into the shows, standard advertising, markups on products sold through the website and eventual sales of subscriptions, Mills said.
Third-party producers of content that HDTV accepts would be able to make money the same way, taking a bigger cut, for example, if they sell a sponsor, Mills said. Those producers would be allowed to take their shows to another network like HGTV if they get a better deal, Mills said. Designers would be able to make money by serving as product ambassadors.
HDTV ideally wants to produce three shows internally each year, in addition to taking in outside content, Mills said. HDTV has raised $400,000 so far internally and may eventually seek venture capital money, Mills said. A potential exit strategy in several years: a sale of the network to a design-oriented national print media company that doesn’t have a network, Mills said. “Hopefully, at the end of the day, [what the company may try to raise in the near-term] is going to be a drop in the bucket compared to what can transpire in four to five years.”
2019 Showcase Home: Colleyville
Here are the participating vendors:
Builder: John Webb, Heritage Homes
Interior: Donna Moss Designs
Appliances: The Jarrell Co.
Audio/visual/high-speed wiring/security: H Custom
Brick material:Metro Brick and Stone Co.
Cabinets, kitchen:The Kitchen Source
Cabinets, non-kitchen:Mike Conkle’s Custom Cabinets
Countertops fabrication:Absolute Stone & Tile
Countertops material and fabrication: KLZ Stone Supply
Electric labor: C&B Electric
Fence: Magnolia Fence & Patio
Fire suppression:Haynes Fire Protection
Framing labor: Lone StarFraming & Construction
Garage doors:Overhead Garage Door
Gutters: Loveless Gutters
Hardware and labor: Pierce Fine Decorative Hardware and Plumbing
Landscape and irrigation: Guardado Landscaping
Lighting: Passion Lighting
Lumber: BMC
Master tub: The Jarrell Co.
Mirrors, glass and shower doors: Fashion Glass & Mirror
Paint materials: Sherwin-Williams
Paint labor: J&V Painting
Plumbing labor: Pro Serve Plumbing
Pool: Leschber Designs
Roof and standing seam:Texas Tile Roofing
Tile: Daltile
Wine room storage:Vineyard Wine Cellars
Wood flooring: Vintage Floors
