Digital studio DECA today launched BushLeague.tv, a website with original video content and blogs aimed at the typical ‘dude’ (you know who you are). This is the latest venture of DECA, which describes itself as a “digital entertainment studio that finances, develops, markets and distributes premium online content that combines video, social media and community.”

MobilizedTV spoke with DECA co-founder/president/CEO Michael Wayne and General Manager Allison Kingsley, a former Groundlings executive director and TV producer who conceptualized and hosts the site with Executive Producer Matt Kirsch.

MobilizedTV: How did the idea for BushLeague develop? What did you want to bring to the site that would differentiate it from other “dude-centric” sites like heavy.com?

KINGSLEY: I came up with the site with my husband Matt Kirsch who is also my partner so he has the male point of view in this. We were really excited about what was going on online and motivated by what we saw happening in broadband and new media. We wanted to come up with a different way to merge our backgrounds. BushLeague is a site that showed information for the average guy but with a comedic POV that highlighted our experience and relationship. That’s what makes us different from other sites: the idea is to give guys tips and information that’s useful to them but do it in a way that’s irreverent and entertaining.

MobilizedTV: At what point did DECA get involved, and what was the nature of DECA’s involvement in the development of the project?

WAYNE: Allison and Matt came in a few months ago. DECA is not really focused on scripted comedy. The question you posed to Allison about how this would be different [from other male-skewed sites] — we had the same thoughts out of the gate. We don’t want to be a comedy site with sketch comedy. What we thought was interesting about their idea is that it’s information first. And it’s a premium environment. You don’t see user-generated content. All the content and blogs come from the BushLeague team, who are writers from SNL, producers from G4, writers of TV pilots. It’s an amazing network of talented people committed to information for dudes rather than just a sketch comedy routine which you can find on any comedy site out there. It’s a blog format with video.

MobilizedTV: Tell me a bit about the line-up on BushLeague. What are the stand-out programs?

KINGLSEY: We have multiple formats that highlight the brand and can illustrate our tone. One we just posted is the “24 Hour VIdeo Game Review” where we have one of our young writer/producers have a video game and play the game for 24 hours straight. Through that process, every hour, he gives information about his experience, the functionality of the game, its highlights. After the 24 hours is up, he gives a recap and final review, and comedy that is organic to the process because of his fatigue.

We just finished [an episode] with Grand Theft Auto 4, and we went for the Guinness Book of Records. [Our producer] played for 28 hours and it was quite an exciting night for us. Unofficially we’ve reached a record, but it will take Guinness a few weeks to authenticate our attempt.

We have another [program] called Bush League 101 which is our “how-tos.” It higlights lifestyle issues for dudes - how to change your oil, how to make it in the porn business, how to host a poker night party. It gives you interesting information, from a comedic point of view.

Another segment is”Can I still eat it?” in which a nurse and a nutritionist go into a dude’s refrigerator and through every item there, to tell him whether or not he can still eat it. It goes through some health issues for guys. There’s always a jar of spaghetti sauce, often with mold and usually a jar of crusty mustard.

MobilizedTV: Is this an entirely ad-supported site? DO you have any advertisers lined up?

WAYNE: It’s advertising and sponsorship. We’re out there pitching. A lot of the sites we’re working on, we like to give a bit of a runway. We’re in the process of talking to large distribution partners for partnering with advertising and marketing. There’ll be a couple of announcements in a while. Now we’re just focusing on making the content as best it can be. You’ll see BushLeague on YouTube, MetaCafe, embedded in blogs - all the promotional marketing that helps build that audience.

MobilizedTV: What will be the social media and community components of the site?

WAYNE: We’ve started with a couple of social media features; every post has comments. We have a fun scoreboard, so you can vote things up or down. There’s a section of the site called Tool of the Week, where you can nominate a tool of the week. This is sort of Bush League 1.0. As we move forward, we’ll add more functionality to the site. The way we launch our sites, we’re not trying to compete directly with social networking sites. We’re building a brand, a premium user experience, and then grow it once we start getting feedback from our users.

One other thing interesting to note. A big component of BushLeague the brand is a live component. When “24 Hour Game Review” was happening with Grand Theft Auto 4 and the world record attempt, we streamed the entire 28 hours on line. Close to 23,000 people stopped in - some were there for 18, 20 hours, leaving messages. We created a great fan base.

KINGSLEY: Some people were watching for so long that they had their friends coming on to cheer them on.

WAYNE: You’ll see more live things, like a live writer’s room perhaps. How cool to have the Bush League audience involved int he writing of segments and ideas. Live is probably one of the coolest social media features.

MobilizedTV: I think we all know that the young male demo is big on broadband, but metrics have also shown that females and older demos are also watching. Will future offerings be aimed at these demos? What’s holding that up - are advertisers wary of any demo but this one?

WAYNE: It’s a great question. I think the Internet for sure has a great audience of young men who are tech-savvy, video game users who have grown up online. And I think you see a lot of properties that target them, and you’ll see a lot more. There have been folks that say, but there are so many things that target young males. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be more, and hopefully every year there’ll be more creative points of view. When Allison and Matt came in, we wanted to make sure we did something unique.

You’ll see us debut a Mom project in beginning of June, a fashion site for young women in Fall, a product in July that comes out for young men and women. DECA will be targeting online audiences that are men, women, young, old. BushLeague is leading the charge with this new wave of properties.We just want to be very smart about the ideas, and the partners we get into bed with.

MobilizedTV: Are there any plans to go mobile with BushLeague.tv? How does mobile fit into DECA’s future distribution plans?

KINGLSEY: Yes, our content will be very compatible with mobile. We definitley have those intentions.

WAYNE: DECA owns the content, so you won’t just see us do deals with US mobile partners but be aggressive internationally. Young males, video games - that works well worldwide. The mobile market will be great for this property. We have two deals we’re discussing, one in the US and one internationally.