Fine Brothers Entertainment (FBE) is an award-winning American media company, studio and new generation TV network creating innovative programming for a global audience comprised of both its own and partner channels.
Founded in 2004 by brothers Benny Fine and Rafi Fine, the company is best known for its video series. React, as well as many of his timed spoiler series and narrative web series. FBE is also popular for creating My Music, a web transmedia mockumentary sitcom that debuted on the MyMusicShow YouTube channel.
It’s been more than a decade since Fine Brothers was founded and until now it hasn’t stopped creating quality content. It consists of over 70 full-time employees.
FBE (Fine Brothers) Bio
Benny Fine was born on March 19, 1981 while his brother Rafi Fine was born on June 9, 1983. Both spent much of their youth in Sullivan County, New York. The brothers are college graduates. Benny started college when he was just 15, while Rafi, who has a degree in film studies, first attended Dickson College for two years before later moving to Hunter College, from where he graduated.
According to the brothers, they have been creating videos all their lives. As a child, Benny started recording interviews with people in his Jewish community on a cassette player and later switched to using the family camcorder to record all kinds of weird videos. His younger brother Rafi soon made such videos with him and when they became teenagers they got their first video camera and started recording comedy sketches.
The Fine Brothers career
In 2000, the Fine Brothers made a live-action feature that found its way into comedy film festivals, where it was screened. Their plan was to create a feature every year in hopes that one of them would eventually help them break into Hollywood. They later won the Young Film-Maker Award, but soon found that the internet held a brighter future for them.
Based in Orlando, Florida, Benny and Rafi created their first website in 2003 and uploaded their first video the following year. They have also uploaded live-action sketches and comedy content to sites like MySpace.
On June 4, 2007, the duo launched their main YouTube channel, TheFineBros (later renamed Fine Brothers Entertainment and now known as FBE). They launched the channel with videos of mature social satire and as of December 21, 2018 it has 18,271,808 subscribers and more than 7.3 billion views which has earned the brothers an estimated net worth of $13 million.
The duo later moved to Los Angeles and continued to grow their channel. On May 14, 2009, they launched a second channel called TheFineBros2. Here they post behind-the-scenes videos as well as clips from their All We Know news podcast.
A third channel (React) was created on July 22, 2014 in an attempt to expand their React content. The channel offers a varied selection of games, food, music and game shows. Presentation of adults, children, elders and teenagers.
The first episode of Kids React was uploaded to the React channel on October 6, 2010. Subsequently, React videos were uploaded to the channel by other YouTubers and celebrities. They were later expanded to include videos of cast members reacting to the video games.
On December 15, 2014, the Fine Brothers aired the reality television series titled “React to It” on Nickelodeon. They did this in collaboration with Nick Cannon, an actor, television and radio personality. On the show, people of different ages shared their thoughts on viral YouTube videos.
Benny and Rafi, alongside Marc Summers Productions, created and hosted the TV comedy reality show Six Degrees of Everything, which aired August 18, 2015 on TruTV , was produced by the brothers for ABC. They also created the web series “SING IT” with Mandeville Films. The series, a satirical look at singing competitions, premiered on YouTube Red on May 25, 2016.
The duo have collaborated in writing, directing and producing web videos with fellow YouTube stars such as Shane Dawson, ShayCarl, KassemG and top broadcasters such as Smosh and PewDiePie. Since their channels are under the YouTube Affiliate Program, they can make money from advertising revenue.
In addition to YouTube, FBE has a digital channel on Facebook. In December 2017, they released their first feature film, F The Prom, which is now available on Netflix.
Family Facts
The brothers were both born in Brooklyn to Orthodox Jewish parents, Yehuda Fine (father) and Ellie J. Fine (mother). Her mother is a Democrat, her father is a writer, speaker and educator. Yehuda has appeared in many of the Fine Brothers React videos such as “ Elders React to Ghost Elevator Prank ”.
Benny and Rafi have an older sister named Dorah Fine. She teaches Hebrew and Judaic Studies and is also a voice actor.
Other ventures
The Fine Brothers have a popular YouTube series that covers a variety of topics from books to video games to movies. They uploaded the first episode of the series titled 100 film spoilers in 5 minutes – (Movie Endings Ruined) on November 11, 2008 and as of December 2018, the series has garnered more than 2.8 million views. Some other videos in the series include “Spoilers Series”, “Doctor Who in 6 Minutes” and “Spoilers of the First 7 Harry Potter Movies”.
The brothers also posted a video each month spoiling 50 videos that went viral on YouTube and other sources in the previous month.
The talented young men also created a show called “Lost: What Happens Next?” The show is a parody of the TV series Lost, which debuted on January 24, 2008 and ended on November 1, 2010. It had over 19 episodes and included several characters from the film “Avatar”, “Star Wars”. and other fictional universes. In collaboration with Rhett and Link, the Fine Brothers also created a parody song of Lost.
controversies
The Fine Brothers announced on January 26, 2016 that they would license and trademark their YouTube series React to allow creators to create their own React series. The brothers filed the term “react” specifically for the brand. Many other YouTube content creators who have no relation to the Fine Brothers YouTube channel also use it in their titles.
The announcement was highly frowned upon by some of their viewers and other YouTube content contributors, who believed the brothers wanted to stop people outside of their channel from making reaction videos. However, the duo vowed not to monetize other types of reaction videos and not to allow copyright infringement.
Despite the promise, there have been reports that videos featuring Fine Bros footage have been removed from other YouTubers. It was also reported that the Fine Brothers’ “Elders React” series was launched after another channel produced “Seniors React” videos.
This resulted in more than 675,000 accounts being unsubscribed from channels React and Fine Bros Entertainment as of February 22, 2016 in protest.The brother eventually announced that all React trademarks and trademark applications were revoked. that they have discontinued the React World program and released all previous Content ID claims.