Cable Upfront Overview

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:18:35 +0100

Boosted perhaps by a continuing climb in ratings for the month of May, cable’s advertising commitments for the new television season are off to a brisk start, according to Advertising Age, which projects the final haul to come in somewhere around $8 billion in media buy commitments, representing a 10% to 15% increase over last year.

Taking a play from their broadcast network brethren, cable networks are pushing “must buy” shows, with the big cable networks leading the charge. Turner, pushing its “primetime replacement” package, commanded CPM increases of 8% or more for popular broadcast alternative fare like TNT’s The Closer and TBS’ House of Payne and has reportedly sold up to 70% of its inventory.

Lifetime is also pushing out ahead, with CPM increases of 9% thanks to its original scripted series like Army Wives, while over at MTV Networks, 75% of its adult and kids upfront business has already been committed, with significant increases in both volume and pricing.

Opting to deal separately from its familial broadcast negotiations, the NBC Universal cable networks – Bravo, Oxygen, Sci Fi and USA –are reporting moderate price increases, according to media buyers.

After the general entertainment cable networks lock up the bulk of their inventory, watch for media buyers to begin cherry-picking the niche networks such as HGTV and others.

ABC Family
Among the new original series announced for ABC Family are :

The Middleman, a 13-part, one-hour series based on the novels of Javier Grillo-Marxauch, stars Matt Keeslar as the Middleman, who nurtures his prodigy, Wendy Watson (played by Natalie Morales), a 20-something who becomes a secret agent and fights comic book-esque criminals. Mary Pat Gleason, Brit Morgan and Jake Smollett round out the cast.

The Secret Life of the American Teenager, a 10-part, one-hour drama about a family and friends and how they all cope with an unexpected teen pregnancy, features cast members Shailene Woodley, Kenny Baumann, Daren Kagasoff, Francia Raisa, Greg Finley, Megan Park, India Eisley, Jorge-Luis Pallo, Mark Derwin and Molly Ringwald.

ABC Family will also introduces two new half-hour comedies in 2009, a first in that genre for the network. Roommates, a 13-episode series, is about a group of friends who are working their way through love and life post-college; and the 13-episode Sophie, which follows a young woman experiencing the worst year of her life.

ABC Family is also planning event programming for September, with the introduction of Samurai Girl, a miniseries airing for six hours over three nights that is based on the young adult novel series of the same name. The program features 19-year Heaven, who finds out her adoptive father is the head of the Japanese mafia and may have had her brother murdered. After fleeing from her family, she trains to become a samurai to bring down her father and his empire.

A&E Network
Committed to investing some $650 million on new content for its A&E, History and online platforms, A&E Network CEO Abbe Raven told advertisers that all of the A&E cable networks earned their best-ever ratings in first quarter 2008, prompting the network to develop more original programming, including the new drama series Cleaner, starring Benjamin Bratt, and The Beast, with Patrick Swayze, Danny Fricke and Connie Nielsen. Also helping to give the channel a boost is a rebrand campaign built around the tagline Real Life Drama, which was unveiled Memorial Day weekend utilizing national and local television commercials, online, print and out-of-home in key markets.

The network also announced three new reality shows – The Squad, which follows the police force at a maximum security prison, from Wild Eyes Productions; Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal, a companion to Paranormal State, which will profile youngsters who see dead people and is produced by Four Seasons Productions International; and Jacked, a series from Pangolin Pictures about New Jersey’s Auto Theft Task Force, which goes after people who steal cars.

Discovery
With nearly 200 new original series and specials across its portfolio of cable channels for the 2008/09 season, Discovery Networks is augmenting its on-air content with significant online media, including the purchase of website HowStuffWorks (http://www.howstuffworks.com/) last fall.

Science Channel and Science Channel HD will offer such series as How It’s Made, Weird Connections and Deconstructed to tap into the minds of those interested in everything from everyday items to the stranger side of science. Among the channel’s new program offerings are Danger Man, where the show’s host risks his life by performing stunts using science as his guide; and Build It Bigger, with Danny Forster traveling the world deconstructing everything from private buildings to warships.

Discovery Health offers programming in the real-life genre until the network switches to OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network in 2009. The network will sport a freshened look and a new primetime lineup continuing to target Women 25–54. Each night will follow a specific theme, including Vital Signs, stories of survival on Monday; Crib Notes, series about birth and babies on Tuesday; Amazing Family, profiles and stories of unusual families on Wednesday; Live It! with expert advice on how to live a healthy life on Thursday; and Body Fantastic, which takes a look at how the human body operates on Friday.

Discovery’s Military Channel will take viewers behind the scenes to showcase the men and women serving in our armed forces with new series including Special Ops: Pursuit, featuring former Army Ranger and Air Force para-rescueman Wil Willis, pitted against special agents from the FBI and British Special Air Services to the Shadow Wolves of the U.S. Border Patrol as he attempts to evade capture.

Tac-Tech provides an inside look at the design, testing and manufacturing of military equipment; Backyard to Battlefield introduces viewers to military inventors who work out of their garages or backyards to create new equipment to help the U.S. Armed Forces; and Combat Tech profiles the scientists and engineers who are working on future military equipment and technological innovations.

FitTV has revamped its programming into specialty blocks by day, including Get Started Mondays, offering healthy cooking tips; Transformation Tuesdays, highlighting unique workouts; Living Fit Wednesdays, where experts offer secrets for a healthy lifestyle; Kick Butt Thursdays has experts offer training tips for at-home workouts; Outrageously Fit Fridays has experts demonstrate their personal routines; Custom Fit Saturdays runs the gamut of healthy living from food to workouts; and Shape Up Sundays offers routines for a healthy body and mind.

HGTV
HGTV introduces a number of new series, starting with Rate My Space, based on the web HTV.com web page of the same name. The weekly series, hosted by designer Angelo Surmelis, invites viewers to submit their room design photos for on-air and online voting, with the lowest-rated photos getting help from Surmelis to boost their score.

Canadian home staging company Dekora is the focus of The Stagers, a series that follows the transformations made possible through temporary decorating services.

Capitalizing on the growing green trend, host Carter Oosterhouse and interior designer Nichole Facciuto do environmentally friendly room makeovers in the weekly series Red, Hot & Green.

Mid-season, HGTV will introduce Dear Genevieve, a home decorating advice show hosted by designer Genevieve Gorder; and Superscapes, with landscape expert Gary Gragg, who will demonstrate how viewers can create outside rooms that reflect their personal style.

Lifetime
Celebrating its 24th anniversary this year, Lifetime has a number of new scripted series in development, including Mistresses, based on the BBC series from Fox 21, which chronicles the relationships of college friends throughout their post-college days; Chambermaid, produced by Spring Creek Productions, Class IV and Warner Horizon Television and based on Saira Rao’s novel about a law school graduate who gets hired to clerk for an unconventional federal judge; Sony Pictures Television’s Drop Dead Diva, centering on a beautiful young actress who, after an untimely death, gets to return to life, but as an older and plain attorney; and The Department Store, from ABC Studios and The Mark Godron Company, about a young woman who lands a job at an exclusive Chicago department store, unaware that she is the illegitimate daughter of the store’s owner.

On the comedy front, Lifetime will be introducing Rita Rocks, about a married mom whose answer to midlife crisis is forming a rock band and practicing in the garage, and Libertyville, about a divorced mom juggling her cranky father, kids and dating, both from Media Rights Capital. Also on the roster is Burnt Toast, from ABC Studios, based on Teri Hatcher’s (Desperate Housewives) book about a single mom in her 40s who is trying to help her daughter make good life choices.

Lifetime also has a number of reality series in the works, such as Granada’s The Big Match, where 100 single men vie for a date with one woman; Tiger Aspect’s Cook Yourself Thin, which has four female chefs teaching women how to cook healthy food; GRP’s Salsa and the City, a docu-soap about a Los Angeles salsa dancing group who hang out at Mario Lopez’ salsa club; and Film Garden Entertainment’s Total Knockout, hosted by supermodel Roshumba Williams, which has three contestants facing off against celebrity stylists in a makeover competition.

TBS
With the success of My Boys, 10 Items or Less, House of Payne and Frank TV, TBS has proven itself as the destination for original comedy series on cable. In addition to new seasons of those signature series, the cable network is also developing a project written, executive produced and starring award-winning actor William H. Macy; another scripted comedy executive produced by Russell Simmons, Stan Lathan and Winifred Hervey and starring Joey “Run” Simmons; and a late-night comedy sketch show tentatively called National Banana Already in Progress, executive produced by Jerry Zucker.

TNT
Buoyed by the success of The Closer and Saving Grace, TNT told advertisers that it will offer viewers original primetime programming three nights a week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) by the 2010 television season. Currently in development on several scripted dramas, TNT is working with Warner Horizon Television and George Clooney’s SmokeHouse on Delta Blues, about a Memphis cop who moonlights as an Elvis impersonator and still lives at home with his mother; Morse Code, about a young war hero and Boston-based DEA officer (Donnie Wahlberg has been mentioned as the possible star) from Warner Horizon Television; Angel City, from Mandalay Television, about six patrol cops who work the same shift; Lionsgate Television’s Tough Trade, the story of a family of country music performers and Nashville’s music industry; Steven Bochco’s new legal drama Raising the Bar, which stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar (NYPD Blue), Gloria Reuben (ER) and Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle) and is produced by ABC Studios; Truth in Advertising, which stars Eric McCormack (Will & Grace) and Tom Cavanagh (Ed) from Warner Horizon Television; and Leverage, an action drama starring Timothy Hutton (Kidnapped) from Electric Entertainment.

TNT is also working on a project with Joe Surnow about an ATF agent, and a family drama with Rob Ulin.

TNT also announced an unscripted series, Wedding Day, from Mark Burnett Productions and DreamWorks Television, which helps deserving couples get the wedding they’ve always wished for.

USA Network
Characters – be they quirky, unusual, unpredictable or just plain odd – continue to be welcomed at USA Network. Joining USA’s signature series this year will be the returning Starter Wife, starring Debra Messing (Will & Grace), which originally ran as a limited series on the network and comes back with a full order in October. Messing plays the ex-wife of a powerful Hollywood studio head who dumped her for a younger woman, and is now struggling to find her own identify post-divorce; and In Plain Sight, which has Mary McCormack (The West Wing) portraying a U.S. Marshal who works in a covert branch of the Federal Witness Protection Program. In Plain Sight was created and written by David Maples (Home Improvement, Huff), who serves as executive producer alongside Paul Stupin (Dawson’s Creek), and comes from Universal Media Studios.

TV 101

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:49:24 +0100

Under the guidance of World Screen editor Anna Carugati, who also serves as executive vice president and group editorial director for WSN, Inc., the unique challenges of international buyers were explored at last year’s NATPE Conference & Exhibition.

Among the buyers participating in the World Roundup of Buyers were David Chu, senior vice president of programming and production for ImaginAsian TV, a U.S. cable network that serves a mainstream American audience and Asian Americans with a schedule of 90% acquired Asian programming and 10% original content; Patrice Courtaban, COO of TV5 Monde, which, although a global French-language network reaching 171 million households worldwide, plays to a largely American audience here in the U.S.; and Michael Murphy, founder and director of programs for the nascent Channel 6 general entertainment channel in Ireland.

Asked to describe their channels, Chu told session participants that ImaginAsian TV has been on air in the U.S. for a little over two years and takes credit for being the first Asian American television network. He said that of the network’s content acquisitions, most come from Hong Kong, Japan and Korea, with Korean dramas being among the network’s most popular and best-performing content. Most recently, the network has enjoyed tremendous success with Korean drama Winter Sonata.

Chu also said the recent wave of Korean programming acquisitions, popular among buyers around the world, hasn’t hit the U.S. And that as production quality improves in southeast Asia, the network is acquiring more shows from Vietnam, Thailand and India.

The network also produces its own original comedy sketch and reality shows, tailored specifically to the unique sensibilities of the Asian American audience.

Courtaban said that TV5 Monde launched in 1984, primarily to serve the programming needs of French-speaking viewers living in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, the province of Quebec and, of course, France.

In the 20-plus years since, the network that screens primarily acquired French and European films as well as documentaries has seen 25% of its schedule made up of self-produced news, sports and cultural programming, becoming the second-largest global television network in the world.

In addition to the unique global perspective of its international news coverage, the most popular programs of late for TV5 Monde are premium sport events for which U.S. broadcast rights were acquired, including World Cup Soccer and the Tour de France.

According to Courtaban, the sports programming has been so successful for the network that it is aggressively pursuing other major European sporting events for U.S. acquisition.

Another successful genre for TV5 Monde is the made-for-TV movie, which offers top name directors and actors at more affordable licensing fees than feature films.

Murphy’s Channel 6, which launched just over a year ago, is modeled after U.S.-style networks with its primary focus on entertainment. The network carries no news programming, no sports programming and no children’s programming and reaches approximately 80% of total Irish television households.

Keeping within the legal guidelines established for European-based networks, which require that 50% of Channel 6’s programming schedule be sourced from European producers, Murphy says that 90% of the channel’s acquisitions are American programs. Among the network’s most successful U.S. acquisitions is HBO’s The Sopranos, the success of which even caught Murphy by surprise.

To learn more about the types of programming these international buyers are interested in acquiring, you can purchase the DVD of the World Roundup of Buyers session for $39.95 from the NATPE Store online at http://www.tangibledata.com/natpe/index.cfm?discId=1&categoryId=363&startrow=31

NATPE - National Association of Television Program Executives

Cable Upfront Overview

TV 101