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HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 7, 2025 21 "Liberty Bank took a chance on us. We're delighted by our relationship with them." Scott Smith CEO & President, Max Restaurants With personalized ser vices and experienced local lending teams, Max Restaurants leaned on Liberty Bank's partnership to reach their business goals. Contact our Commercial Lending Professionals at liberty-bank.com/commercial Member FDIC Equal Housing Lender. All loans and lines are subject to credit and underwriting approval. 24-LBB-0226_Comm_Lending_HBJ_9.75x6.75_Max_M3.indd 1 24-LBB-0226_Comm_Lending_HBJ_9.75x6.75_Max_M3.indd 1 1/31/25 12:43 PM 1/31/25 12:43 PM and Freevee, and are happy to put up with ads if they can get content for free. Viewership is up significantly, with a study last year saying that 66% of U.S. watchers spent at least some time each month with FAST channels. Surveys have found that this type of viewing has restored the chan- nel-surfing behavior that on-demand streaming services don't fulfill. That's led terrestrial TV companies to hop into the FAST market, including Gray Media, the owner of WFSB. Gray, which also operates its own stable of FAST channels, became Triple-B Media's first investor in 2023 as the formerly bootstrapped company sold them a minority ownership stake. A second investment came last year from Takashi Cheng of Golden TV, the first 24/7 Asian American and Pacific Islander cable network in English language, and the first AAPI streamer in English language. "We're running one of his channels, and then he came in as an investor," Bailey said. "The goal there was that we would help with his portfolio … of content providers and channels, and that we would work together on potential new lines of business within the content realm." Open to an exit Since its humble beginnings in a small office space in Cheshire, Triple-B Media has moved into classier digs in North Haven, and also has operations in Florida and New Jersey. Triple-B Media Chief Commercial Officer Brendan Canning talks with software engineer Aaron Garner. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO But its headcount has remained small. It currently employs 12 people, eight of them in Connecticut. And it's continuing to find new ways of reaching its viewers. With its newest offering, Bark TV, it's not relying on that precious "shelf space" on the streaming TV infra- structure. Instead, it's offering Bark over the air — literally to houses that still have broadcast antennas. Canning says that is still a market of potentially 25 to 30 million households. "We're in over 80 broadcast markets at the moment. Eight out of the ten top markets in the country," he said. "We're in New York, LA, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix. So, we took a little bit of a different distribu- tion approach to Bark." It's creative thinking that speaks to the volatile environment Triple-B Media has been navigating since 2021. "I'm not going to sit here and say it's been easy," Bailey said. "I'd say we weathered the storm. We have really good investors right now. We turned a corner last year in profit- ability. Our goal is to continue to grow and who knows, at some point maybe one of the bigger guys will find us attractive." So, the partners are open to an exit? "I think if anybody's in the content business like this, you have to always be open to an exit," Bailey said.