CNBC gets into the crowd funding business

Philiana Ng of The Hollywood Reporter writes Monday about “Crowd Rules,” a new reality show on CNBC where businesses compete to win $50,000 in funding.

Ng writes, “Crowd Rules panelists emphasized the differences of their CNBC offering from that of ABC’s Shark Tank, which focuses on the entrepreneur and whose bickering ‘sharks’ are often the entertainment. Depending on who you believe, panelists Kiernan and Scott ‘agree 80 percent of the time’ or ’75 percent.’

“‘All three businesses have existing businesses that work that we have reason to believe that they would thrive,’ Kiernan said. ‘We’re not picking the worst so that we know what the outcome would be.’

“Why the $50,000 prize? Davies revealed that at one point the amount was actually ‘much larger.’ What he found, however, was that $50,000 was already enough for businesses to utilize for marketing or to put in elsewhere. (Companies have about 30 seconds in a final ditch effort to persuade panelists and the audience, who either vote with their head or their heart, what they’re going to do with the money.)

“Jim Ackerman, senior vp primetime alternative programming at CNBC, noted that the $50,000 prizes will not be given to the winners until after the episodes air, but Ackerman assured that they would receive the money.”

Read more here.