Fine Brothers Entertainment

React Media, LLC (also known as React; formerly as Fine Brothers Entertainment) is an American media company, founded by brothers Benny Fine (born March 19, 1981) and Rafi Fine (born June 9, 1983), creators and media entrepreneurs. React Media produce the "React" video series, their several timed-spoiler series, narrative web series, and created a "transmedia" sitcom on YouTube, "MyMusic". React Media has been creating content since 2004, and has many large digital channels on YouTube, including REACT (Now Replay), FBE (Now REACT), FBE2 (Now FBE Official), Try Not To, Facebook (FBE, FBE Shows, Do They Know It, What Would My Kid Do, and Reverse Ratings), Snapchat (Try Not To and React) and Instagram's IGTV, has sold multiple television shows ("React to That", "Celebs React", "Six Degrees of Everything", "Emo Dad", and "Sing It!"), and released their first feature film in 2017 ("F the Prom").
FBE has over 8 billion views and over 32 million subscribers. They are one of the few companies to have two YouTube channels with over 10 million subscribers. Due to a controversy over an attempt to license and trademark the term "React", as well as the names of their series, the React Media's channels lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers in early 2016.
In July 2018, Marc Hustvedt joined as the new CEO of React Media to help with the continued growth of the company. With the addition of Marc as CEO, React Media went on to expand their consumer products offering by acquiring Officially Pinned in early 2019 and later that year established an Interactive Content Lab to expand the studio's interactive storytelling capabilities to help with their partnership with Eko.
In September 2020, the company rebranded their channels FBE, FBE2, and REACT as REACT, FBE, and REPLAY respectively, presumably to distance themselves from the Fine Brothers name after the racial discrimination allegations that came out a few months prior.
In May 2021, it was announced that Fine Brothers Entertainment, Inc. is now known as React Media, LLC.
Early life and career.
The brothers grew up in the 1990s in an Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn. The Fine Brothers stated that they have been making videos almost their entire life; Benny, being the elder brother, would "rope [Rafi] into making all kinds of weird stuff." "New York" detailed the two "started recording comedy sketches as adolescents, when they got their first video camera." They spent most of their teen years in Sullivan County, New York. Benny started college at age 15, while Rafi attended Dickinson College for two years before transferring to Hunter College, where he got a degree in film studies. The two began entertaining their friends with short sketches and full-length comedies shot with action figures.
The brothers stated that they created a live action feature in 2000 that made its way into comedy film festivals, and that they were planning to create a feature each year, hoping that one feature would soon help the brothers break into Hollywood. Despite winning young filmmaker awards, they soon came to the conclusion that this method would not be the best path, and decided their future would be on the internet, which they viewed at the time as the new film festival. The brothers created their first website in 2003, and uploaded their first web video in 2004.
In August 2020, the Fine Brothers left their own company after a video resurfaced which showed Benny Fine in blackface as part of a Degrassi parody by Shane Dawson.
History of the company.
2007–2017.
The Fine brothers made YouTube their full time jobs in July 2010.
FBE found success on YouTube where their main channel, TheFineBros (later renamed Fine Brothers Entertainment, and currently FBE), has more than 19 million subscribers and 7.8 billion video views as of May 2019. FBE also has a secondary channel, under the name FBE2, launched on May 14, 2009. A third channel was launched on July 22, 2014 under the name React, as a way to expand their "React" content.
FBE soon joined the Maker Studios venture, and stated that after speaking with Shane Dawson about a plan for the project, "we were the head of production and head of creative." The duo ran Maker Studios throughout 2009 and were responsible for the early success and planning for what became known as Multi-channel networks (MCNs)—they have since been vocal advocates for fair treatment of creators by the networks.
On their main channel, FBE upload a multitude of series, creating some of the most popular scripted, narrative, and unscripted series in web history including their award-winning and notable reaction series. They release behind the scenes content, as well as clips from their news podcast "All We Know" on the secondary channel. On October 16, 2010, they uploaded the first episode of "Kids React", the first series in what would later become a notable "React" franchise on YouTube.
Aside from the popular series that the brothers have directed, produced, and uploaded, the duo also has uploaded popular interactive YouTube videos. The company's channels are under the YouTube partner program, allowing them to earn money from ad revenues on their videos. They have also been sponsored by Ford and Comedy Central.
FBE has also collaborated in a variety of ways including writing, directing and producing with other popular YouTubers such as Shane Dawson, ShayCarl, and KassemG, along with collaborating with more in many ways including on their "YouTubers React" show with top channels such as Smosh and PewDiePie.
The Fine Brothers were guest judges on the second season of the web series "Internet Icon".
In December 2013, the duo left Revision3 to sign with Fullscreen though remained vocal about YouTube multi-channel networks, devoting a segment in their update vlog series, "Fine Time", discussing how to navigate them.
On April 30, 2014, it was announced that a spin-off of FBE's "React" series called "React to That" was going to be aired on Nickelodeon. FBE stated in an episode of "Fine Time" that they plan on continuing to upload YouTube videos consistently, however. The show aired 12 episodes. They also created and host the TV series "Six Degrees of Everything" that aired on TruTV in 2015. In early 2016, "New York" detailed that their company employed around 50 people.
Works of FBE have been featured on the websites of "The Wall Street Journal", "Time" magazine, "Variety", and MSNBC.
2017–present.
Marc Hustvedt joined FBE as CEO in July 2018, coming from the New York-based digital brand Above Average. Prior to Above Average, Hustvedt was co-founder and CEO of Supergravity Pictures, a digital-first entertainment studio and distributor that was later  acquired by Gunpowder & Sky. From 2011 to 2013, he was head of entertainment at Chill, a short-lived premium online video destination whose backers included WME. Hustvedt also is a co-founder of trade publication Tubefilter and the Streamy Awards.
At the beginning of 2019, FBE acquired Officially Pinned, an upstart that creates collectible pins in collaboration with top creators such as Shane Dawson, DangMattSmith, Danny Casale, jennxpenn and many more. Officially Pinned gets certified approval from creators and rights-holding partners to vend the pins and works directly with the parties involved to collaborate on the designs — hence the “official” part of the name. Officially Pinned was inspired by Disney pin-trading culture.
In July 2019, FBE partnered with the interactive video company Eko to produce 12-plus interactive TV pilots that consist of scripted and unscripted formats as well as game shows and social-driven experiences with the potential to turn them into full series. Eko and FBE teamed up on the production of “Epic Night,” a four-episode branching-narrative series about a college-party adventure. For the Eko partnership, FBE established an Interactive Content Lab to expand the studio's interactive storytelling capabilities by developing, funding and shopping new formats.
From March to August 2020, the company began working on quarantine during the COVID-19 outbreak.
In June 2020, many reactors and staff left FBE after a sketch resurfaced of Benny Fine appearing in Blackface. Many former staff members of FBE also spoke out about their experiences working there, alleging racism and sexism towards the company. The Fine Brothers subsequently issued out an apology, stating, “We view our past content with disgust and shame. We know that we have a lot of work to do to try to make it right. We promise to do so.” However, on July 6, it was announced by a former FBE staff member that the Fine Brothers had left the company, but are still the core members. 
In September 2020, the company announced the rebranding of their channels FBE, FBE2 and REACT as REACT, FBE, and REPLAY respectively.
In December 2020, FBE began restructuring which lead to layoffs of 17 employees.
In January 2021, TikTokers get involved with the company.
YouTube series.
React series on FBE Channel and React Channel.
FBE launched a series titled "Kids React" on October 16, 2010, the first video being "Kids React to Viral Videos #1 (Double Rainbow, Obama Fail, Twin Rabbits, Snickers Halloween)". The "Kids React" series features The Fine Brothers, off-camera, showing kids several viral videos or popular YouTubers and having the kids react to the videos.
The series would later lead to spin-offs uploaded on the company's channel, featuring kids, teens, elders, staff, adults (including sub-branches college kids, parents, etc.) and YouTubers. Due to the increasing success of the "React" franchise, FBE, in collaboration with Nick Cannon, later developed a television series for Nickelodeon, titled "React to That". Later on, FBE launched a separate "React" YouTube channel, with additional reaction-related videos, including remixes of past reaction footage and cast members reacting to video games, among other content.
"MyMusic".
FBE is the creator of "MyMusic", a sitcom show funded by YouTube's $100 million original channel initiative. "MyMusic" features a main ensemble cast of Adam Busch, Chris Clowers, Jack Douglass, Tania Gunadi, Grace Helbig, Lainey Lipson, Jarrett Sleeper, Mychal Thompson and has featured many guest stars, with members of both "Kids React" and "Teens React" also appearing. The series has an interactive transmedia aspect, which FBE has spoken on, saying "To us, new media should be 'new' – and just not just a passive experience. The ability to create new storytelling elements and new ways to entertain audiences is what is so motivating about being a creator at this time." The show revolves around MyMusic, a company led by CEO Indie (portrayed by Adam Busch) who is portrayed as a stereotypical modern-day hipster. Another character on the show, Metal (portrayed by Jarrett Sleeper), is based on the brothers' teenage years. "The Metal character comes directly from us when we were teenagers. We were metalheads, full-on," as Fine stated. "MyMusic" has a separate channel on YouTube from the main FBE channel (MyMusicShow), which had over 381,000 subscribers and 28.9  million video views as of July 7, 2013. "MyMusic" was nominated for nine Streamy Awards in the 3rd installment of the event, with three of the nominations going to the Fine Brothers. The second season premiered on August 20, 2013.
Other YouTube series.
"Spoilers".
FBE had a popular series where they spoil a variety of topics ranging from books to films to video games. The first episode of their "Spoiler" series, "100 Movie Spoilers in 5 Minutes – (Movie Endings Ruined)", was uploaded on YouTube on November 11, 2008. With over 2.7  million video views as of July 28, 2014, the episode is also the most popular of the series. FBE also uploaded a video containing spoilers of the first seven "Harry Potter" films in roughly seven minutes on July 13, 2011. FBE spoiled 47 years in roughly 6 minutes of the popular series, "Doctor Who", and released subsequent sequels in preparations for the premieres of series 8 & 9 respectively. Other TV shows that have had spoiler videos made about them have included "Game of Thrones", "Breaking Bad", "The Walking Dead" and "Orange Is the New Black". Additionally, FBE put up a video each month spoiling 50 viral videos that have circulated on YouTube and other sources during the previous month.
"Lost: What Will Happen Next?".
FBE created a show titled "Lost: What Will Happen Next?", which is a parody show based on "Lost". The show debuted on January 24, 2008, and was the first long-running series on the Fine Brothers channel. The show lasted 19 episodes and ended on November 1, 2010. The show featured several characters from other fictional universes such as the "Avatar" and "Star Wars" universe. FBE collaborated with Rhett and Link to create a parody song of "Lost" as well.
"Try Not To Channel".
FBE on February 9, 2020 launched the Try Not To Channel with the video try not to move ultimate challenge. The video has over
2.7 million views. the channel has over 618,000 subscribers as of mid-March 2020.They release try not to laugh challenges on Fridays which were previously held on the React channel. The channel was in hiatus from July 31st 2020 to March 1st 2021. In 2021, the Creators from Social Media take over the challenges.
Controversies.
React World.
On January 26, 2016, FBE announced that they would license and trademark their existing "React" series and let creators create their own react series. In particular, FBE applied to trademark, among other terms, the term "react", which is used in the title of numerous other YouTube videos unrelated to FBE's YouTube channel. The announcement was met with backlash from some of their viewers and fellow YouTube content creators, many of whom believed FBE was attempting to prohibit the creation of reaction videos by people unaffiliated with their channel. In response, the company promised that they would "not be trying to take revenue from other types of reaction videos, and will not be copyright-striking." However, other YouTubers reported copyright related takedowns of videos containing FBE footage. There were also reports that another YouTube channel had produced "Seniors React" videos just prior to FBE's "Elders React" series. The backlash led to a dramatic drop in subscribers, with upwards of 675,000 accounts collectively unsubscribing from the React and FBE channels in protest as of February 22, 2016.
On February 1, FBE stated they had rescinded all "React" trademarks and trademark applications, discontinued the React World program, and released all previous Content ID claims. In addition, FBE removed their original React World announcement video, as well as their update video which addressed the initial backlash.
Allegations of racial discrimination.
In June 2020, many former employees spoke out about their experiences working at FBE, which included allegations of racism and sexism towards the company. In January 2021, Insider published a report which contained allegations that the company fostered casual racism. While one employee claimed that she was told at times that having a reactor with lighter skin on the left of video thumbnails, which was said to be where viewers would tend to see them first, "appeals to the fans." Insider said that in 434 thumbnails that included one person of color and one white person, 238 of them (55%), had the white person on the left side. People interviewed in the article also alleged that white people were favored to appear in React videos.
Accolades.
This is a list of awards, nominations, recognition and achievements received by the "Fine Brothers" during their career.