[Note that these channels will be offered free to MSOs; perhaps they
will be unencrypted feeds on satellite.]
Garth Ancier Lines Up TV Vets to Launch Four Retro Cable Nets (EXCLUSIVE)
May 31, 2013 | 01:19PM PT
Former BBC America prexy’s Zeus Media Partners aims for Q2 2014 debut of
decade-themed channels
Todd Spangler
Variety.com
http://variety.com/2013/tv/news/garth-ancier-lines-up-tv-vets-to-launch-four-retro-cable-nets-exclusive-1200490723/
Longtime TV exec Garth Ancier is going retro with a new cable networks
venture, and he’s brought industry veterans Diane Robina, Alan Goodman
and Michael Ross along for the trip.
Ancier, CEO and partner of newly formed Zeus Media Partners, is in
active discussions with pay-TV operators to carry a suite of four
channels stocked with TV shows from four decades — the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s
and ’90s.
The pitch: Zeus nets will be free to cable, satellite and telco TV
operators and supported by advertising. Ancier’s company is aiming to
launch the channels in the second quarter of 2014.
“We have been looking at literally every show that was made in these
eras,” said Ancier, former BBC America prexy and chairman of WB
Television Network. The concept is patterned after Sirius XM’s satellite
radio channels grouped by decade.
The Zeus project will compete most directly with Viacom’s TV Land, which
has been home to classic TV programs for 17 years — and it’s a network
both Robina and Goodman are intimately familiar with.
Robina, who leads content acquisition for Zeus, was previously head of
programming for TV Guide Network and helped launch TV Land when she was
at MTV Networks. Goodman, heading up handling creative and marketing,
was one of the co-creators of the Nick at Nite programming block, from
which TV Land was spun out.
Meanwhile, Ross formerly led business affairs for BBC America, The CW
and WB Network. He has joined Zeus as chief operating officer and CFO.
“My strategy is to take a couple of gray-haired people who really know
what they’re doing,” along with younger up-and-comers “who can bring
fresh ideas to the table,” Ancier said.
The Zeus channels are expected to have programming costs averaging $50
million per year. “For four cable networks that’s not bad,” said Ancier,
noting that the company is attempting to secure TV Everywhere
distribution rights in addition to linear TV.
Zeus Media incorporated in April, and is currently funded by the
partners. To launch the nets, the company will bring in outside investors.
For Ancier, the key to building audiences nostalgic for skeins from the
’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s will be in curation and show-discovery
strategy. Zeus is seeking adjacent placement for the four channels, and
the idea is that at the top of the hour they’ll each run a roadblock
promoting next-up programming on all four.
Retro TV is an untapped opportunity, to hear Ancier tell it, with about
80% of shows from those four decades unavailable on any national
network. “Nowhere on television is ‘Three’s Company,’ ” Ancier said
incredulously, adding that ’60s sci-fi classic “Lost in Space” isn’t in
syndication either.
For now, Ancier isn’t disclosing what Zeus’s target shows are, but the
venture has shared proposed programming schedules with prospective pay
TV partners. Zeus is in talks with eight studios to license library
content: CBS, Sony Pictures Television, 20th Century Fox, MGM, NBC, Walt
Disney Co., Warner Bros. and Carsey Werner. Ancier said the company
isn’t seeking exclusivity on any of the shows.
Zeus has “handshake deals” with several operators and Ancier said his
affiliate lawyers are in the process of drafting contracts.
“It’s hard slogging because you’re asking for four channels” from an
operator, Ancier said. “I’m going in there and basically begging, which
is what you do in cable and satellite.”
_______________________________________________
Medianews mailing list
[email protected]
http://etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews_etskywarn.net
