Tim Brooks

What Tim Brooks does

Tim Brooks is an individual author-historian and former television executive operating the personal website timbrooks.net, which functions as a free public repository of historical research on U.S. television programming, early recording industry history (notably African-American performers from 1890–1919), and U.S. copyright issues affecting sound recordings. The editorial product portfolio consists of more than ten published titles including The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows (now in its ninth edition, covering 6,500+ series with cast credits, plot descriptions and Nielsen ratings), Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, College Radio Days, The Columbia Master Book Discography (four volumes, ~28,000 titles), The Blackface Minstrel Show in Mass Media, and supporting reference works such as TV's Greatest Hits and TV's Greatest Stars. A double-CD companion (Archeophone ARCH 1005) accompanies the Lost Sounds title. Distribution runs entirely through third-party publishers — McFarland, Ballantine Books (now part of Random House), University of Illinois Press, Glenville Press, Mainspring Press — and retail channels led by Amazon.com, with direct order pages on timbrooks.net funneling buyers to those outlets. A secondary revenue line consists of media consulting, expert witness services, and historical research consulting advertised on the site, with no disclosed client roster or pricing. The technology stack is a content website (WordPress-style CMS) hosting articles, PDF downloads, and audio samples; there is no software product, no proprietary platform, no API, and no mobile app. The audience is segmented into academic researchers and historians, media enthusiasts and collectors, and a smaller set of broadcasting industry professionals, served through organic content and traditional book retail rather than paid marketing.

Name

Tim Brooks

Legal name

Tim Brooks

Website

https://timbrooks.net

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Tim Brooks is an individual author-historian and retired television executive operating timbrooks.net, publishing reference books and research on U.S. television programming history and early recording industry history for academic researchers, media enthusiasts, and broadcasting professionals, with secondary consulting and expert witness services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Historical Media Research & Publishing

NAICS

Book Publishers (513130), Book Publishers (51313)

SIC

Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731)

akta.pro primary industry

Genre & Category Publishing (Romance, Mystery/Thriller, Sci‑Fi/Fantasy, etc.) (MPAJAAAB)

Keywords

• Television history research
• Record industry history
• Media history publishing
• Historical discography research
• Expert witness consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Greenwich

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Tim Brooks operates a personal website and scholarly publishing portfolio centered on U.S. television programming history and early recording industry history. He sells authored books, monographs, and companion audio CDs on these subjects through established publishers and online retailers, while also offering media consulting, historical research, and expert witness services to the broadcasting and recording industries.

Product overview

Tim Brooks operates a personal website serving as a resource hub for television and record industry history. The portfolio consists primarily of published books (10+ titles) covering TV programming history and early recording industry history, along with a companion audio CD product (Lost Sounds double CD). Services include media consulting and expert witness work. The offering is a collection of individual publications and services rather than a unified software platform or integrated product suite.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present A comprehensive encyclopedia of every regular series to air on U.S. commercial television networks in prime time since 1946, covering more than 6,500 series with cast credits, plot descriptions, Nielsen ratings, and programming history. Co-authored with Earle Marsh.
• Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919 A scholarly book documenting African-American performers who recorded during the early years of the recording industry, including biographies of three dozen artists and discussion of historic recordings from jazz to spirituals to minstrelsy.

Quantifiable outcome

• The Complete Directory has more than a half million copies in print
• +1 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• Encyclopaedia Britannica: General reference and encyclopedia publisher with a long tradition of authoritative editorial content. Comparable as an institutional reference brand monetizing curated knowledge, though at much broader subject-matter scale than Brooks' media-history specialization.
• Gale (Cengage): Reference publisher producing encyclopedias, biographical dictionaries, and historical databases for libraries. Directly comparable content model to The Complete Directory and The Complete Directory to Prime Time TV Stars but at much larger institutional scale.
• IMDb (Amazon): Authoritative online database of TV programming, cast, and ratings since the 1940s. Direct functional substitute for the historic reference scope of The Complete Directory, with continuous updates and global free access.
• Fandom: Largest network of TV and entertainment reference wikis and databases, freely accessible online. Represents the digital incumbent whose continuous community-edited data substitutes for print reference works like The Complete Directory.
• Routledge (Taylor & Francis): Major academic publisher with extensive catalogs in media studies, musicology, and television history. Overlaps with Brooks' scholarly non-fiction output but at significantly broader scale and with international distribution.
• Nielsen Holdings: Provider of TV ratings, audience measurement, and media research — directly cited in The Complete Directory. Comparable in the media research and ratings analysis dimension of Brooks' former executive work and historical publications.
• Ballantine Books (Random House / Penguin Random House): Major trade publisher that issued earlier editions of The Complete Directory. Comparable in delivering TV-related trade non-fiction to mainstream bookstore and mass-market audiences at vastly larger scale than niche academic presses.

Direct peers

• Archeophone Records: Historical recording label that released the Grammy-winning Lost Sounds double-CD. Closely comparable as a niche operator producing scholarly audio products documenting early American recorded sound for collectors, libraries, and historians.
• University of Illinois Press: Academic publisher of The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows (Ninth Edition). Directly comparable as a scholarly press issuing definitive reference works in media history for libraries, academics, and serious enthusiasts.
• McFarland & Company: Independent academic publisher specializing in reference, scholarly, and niche non-fiction titles. McFarland publishes several of Tim Brooks' books including The Blackface Minstrel Show, making it both a partner and the most directly comparable publisher in scope, audience, and editorial model.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Tim Brooks