Turner Hopes Southern Network Will Charm Its Regional Viewers
By BRAD
REAGAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Turner Broadcasting System Inc. is returning to its roots.
The company, which started as an Atlanta television station 29 years ago, now plans to start a cable entertainment network tailored toward the Southeast. The network will be dubbed Turner South.
Industry observers believe Turner South is the first regional network to feature broad-based entertainment programming, although regional networks focusing on either sports or news programming have proliferated in recent years. The new network will feature movies, sports and original programming -- all geared toward Southeast sensibilities.
'A Sense of Community'
The Southeast "is the only part of the country where there is a sense of community within the region," says Turner executive Bill Burke, who will run the new network. "Having a network targeted to that area makes sense."
The company's first network launch since Turner Classic Movies in 1994, Turner South is scheduled to begin airing in the fall. It hopes to reach homes in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and parts of North Carolina -- a potential market of six million homes.
The new network, however, faces several hurdles before it can begin beaming into Southeast living rooms. Chief among them: gaining access on cable operators' crowded systems and avoiding a legal battle with Australia's News Corp. over sports programming.
Atlanta's TBS has been a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. of New York since a 1996 merger that created the world's largest media company. TBS's founder, Ted Turner, is now vice chairman of Time Warner and still heads the broadcasting unit, which includes Turner Network Television, TBS Superstation, Cable News Network, Turner Classic Movies and the Cartoon Network.
In 1979, Mr. Turner made broadcasting history by bouncing his signal off a satellite and creating a "superstation." A year later, he launched CNN when many in the industry doubted there was a market for a 24-hour news channel.
Far from the hardscrabble beginnings of the early networks, though, Turner South will be able to draw from TBS's and Time Warner's considerable resources.
Steve Grubbs, a media buyer at New York advertising agency BBDO, says regional entertainment networks make sense. With virtually every niche -- from cooking to travel to history -- filled on cable, says Mr. Grubbs, "this is potentially the next big opportunity area."
Mr. Burke, while stopping short of calling Turner South a prototype, does say that Turner officials see "potential in other parts of the country."
No Channels Yet
Company officials, though, acknowledge they haven't yet secured spots on Southeast cable systems. Many upstart networks in recent years have had difficulty getting on cable because channel capacity is limited. But Turner officials hope to draw on their longstanding relationships with cable operators and their history of successful networks to gain access.
"We know it's not going to be a short conversation with any of them," says Mr. Burke, 33 years old, who also is president of TBS Superstation. But "we're confident that we will get wide distribution within the region. ... We feel like it will be a win for the operators."
Like TBS Superstation and TNT, Turner South's programming will draw heavily from the 8,000-title movie library that Mr. Turner purchased from MGM Entertainment Co. in 1986. Whenever possible, Turner South will "package" movies around programming that appeals to specific Southern tastes, Mr. Burke says. One idea being discussed is "Kudzu Theater," taking off on the pesky Southern vine with the motto: "Movies that grow on you."
Mr. Burke acknowledges "there is a fine line" between making fun of the Southeast and celebrating its unique culture. "There are positive stereotypes and then there are negative," he says, adding the network plans to use focus groups to help identify appropriate regional programming. The network will not be "only about people with Southern accents," Mr. Burke says. "People in the South like 'Star Wars,' too."
The network also will have original programming, although few plans are concrete now. Company officials, for example, have talked with Nashville's Bluebird Cafe about broadcasting a music show from the popular country-music venue.
A Dash of Sports
Filling out the programming will be live broadcasts of some games from Mr. Turner's three professional sports teams -- baseball's Atlanta Braves, basketball's Hawks and hockey's Thrashers. TBS Superstation and Fox Sports South already have cable rights to most of the Braves and Hawks games, but Turner South hopes to pick up whatever the two networks don't have. The Thrashers, which begin play next year, haven't yet worked out their television rights.
People familiar with TBS worry privately that broadcasting sports events could open the door for litigation by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which owns Fox Sports South. Messrs. Murdoch and Turner were involved in a bitter dispute over whether Fox could broadcast its news channel over Time Warner cable systems in New York -- a battle Mr. Murdoch eventually won.
In this case, Mr. Turner actually founded Fox Sports South in 1990, when it was called SportSouth. He sold his 44% share of the network to Liberty Media Corp. shortly before the merger with Time Warner. Liberty then merged with Fox and was renamed Fox Sports South.
Some industry observers speculate Mr. Turner may have signed a noncompete agreement on sports programming when he sold SportsSouth. John Mansell, a senior analyst who studies sports business for Paul Kagan Associates in Carmel, Calif., says it isn't unusual for networks to agree to such clauses in these deals.
A Fox Sports South spokesman says the company doesn't comment on the plans of other networks.
TBS officials won't comment specifically on any legal obstacles. But Mr. Burke stresses Turner South will mainly be an entertainment network. And, he adds, the company is satisfied that it can legally proceed with plans for selected sports events. "We're not the kind of company that haphazardly goes into business without believing we're on solid ground," he says.
