Coda
by Staff -- Multichannel News, 11/16/2008 7:00:00 PM
Hallmark, Affils Talk Turkey
New York — Turkey may be a traditional holiday menu option, but Hallmark Channel is thinking more in terms of an exotic trip to that nation, and its main city of Istanbul.
In an effort to further promote its six original holiday movies this season, Hallmark Channel has teamed up with its local ad sales affiliates in the top 30 DMAs and is offering an excursion to the third-largest city in the world.
“Istanbul is an aspirational destination; it’s a trip of a lifetime,” said Rita Caprino, senior director of affiliate ad sales for Hallmark Channel. “Affiliate executives are hit with promos all the time, but this one really helped us cut through the clutter.”
At press time, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox and Cablevision System, with systems reaching 18 million subscribers within the top 30 markets, have signed up to participate in the local ad sales program, whose promotional window extends from Nov. 16 through Dec. 27.
Over that span, Hallmark will premiere six original holiday films on Saturdays at 9 p.m.: An Old-Fashioned Thanskgiving, Nov. 22; Moonlight & Mistletoe, Nov. 29; The Christmas Choir, Dec. 6; The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Dec. 13; Our First Christmas, Dec. 20; and A Kiss at Midnight, Dec. 27.
Within each participating market, affiliates agreed to run 300 cross-channel spots.
Caprino said there isn’t any stricture relative to scheduling the spots, but the network’s analysis showed “the greater opportunity for us comes when they air during early fringe, primetime and late fringe.”
Hallmark has created the 30-second spots, the last five seconds of which can be tagged by the local affiliate. The game plan calls for the operators to rotate specific tune-in spots for a pair of Hallmark’s original telefilms, with a third promo reflecting the network’s umbrella marketing campaign, “Home for the Holidays.”
The family friendly network is also deploying a multi-pronged marketing campaign, including consumer sweepstakes and a first-time presence in Wal-Mart stores. All told, the various marketing and media outlays will total some $15 million.
Last year, Hallmark’s holiday local ad sales initiative featured trips to Jackson Hole, Wyo., and St. John, Virgin Islands.
— Mike Reynolds
Lionsgate Is Mum on 'Mad’ Plans
Santa Monica, Calif. — Indie studio Lionsgate last week lauded the performance and value of its show Mad Men, but offered no update on talks to close a deal for a third season with its creator-writer Matthew Weiner.
Lionsgate co-chairman and CEO Jon Feltheimer talked briefly about AMC’s Emmy-winning Mad Men and the premium channel being launched by his company, Viacom’s Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during a fiscal second-quarter conference call.
“Although we’ve given it no net value on our balance sheet, Mad Men is a hit show that has already demonstrated its long-term worth,” Feltheimer told analysts. “It just finished its second season with its highest-rated episode yet, nearly doubling its previous year’s ratings. Weeds is moving toward a syndication launch next year, and Showtime has already picked it up for a fifth and sixth season.”
Both Mad Men and Weeds have generated “hundreds of thousands of digital downloads,” according to Feltheimer. During the quarter, Weeds generated DVD revenue of more than $6 million, with $5 million in DVD sales from Mad Men.
But Wall Street analysts didn’t ask Lionsgate — and the studio didn’t volunteer — an update on the status of talks with Mad Men’s creator and showrunner, Emmy-winner Weiner. In October AMC announced that it had ordered a third season of Mad Men, but Lionsgate was then still trying to negotiate a new deal with Weiner.
Published reports later said that Weiner was seeking a $10 million contract, prompting Lionsgate to look for another showrunner for Mad Men, which has picked up Emmy and Peabody awards.
During the conference call, Feltheimer also said that a name will soon be announced for the new premium network and subscription video-on-demand service that Lionsgate is a partner in, which is set to debut next October.
According to Lionsgate’s 10-Q, as of Sept. 30 it had spent $8.6 million on the joint-venture network, with “a mandatory commitment of $31.4 million increasing to $42.9 million if certain performance targets are achieved.”
— Linda Moss
CableLabs Unifies Unicast Video Specs
Louisville, Colo. — CableLabs has released specifications defining how cable-headend equipment delivers personalized-TV services, bringing architectures developed by Time Warner Cable and Comcast together under one umbrella.
The specs are part of CableLabs’ overarching Modular Headend Architecture, which includes the existing DOCSIS modular cable modem termination system (M-CMTS) specifications.
CableLabs called the specs “a point of harmonization” between Time Warner Cable’s Interactive Services Architecture and Comcast’s Next Generation on Demand.
— Todd Spangler
Sezmi Sizes Up Seattle
Belmont, Calif. — Sezmi, a startup developing a cable-like service that delivers multichannel video over digital-TV airwaves and the Internet, has completed a technical trial of its system with three broadcast partners in Seattle.
The tests, held over the past two months, were completed with spectrum leased from three broadcasting companies with Seattle TV stations: Fisher Communications, Tribune Broadcasting and Daystar Television Network.
— Todd Spangler
Bellville Boards RCH
Moorestown, N.J. — Cable-company veteran Maggie Bellville is joining the board of directors of acquisition and retention firm RCH Cable.
RCH has 1,600 employees, who are hired by multiple system operators to visit consumer homes to save those customers from disconnecting, and attempting to upsell one-product customers.
— Linda Haugsted
Hallmark Push Hits The Books
05/20/2008Hallmark Channel, Affiliates Talk Turkey
11/14/2008Sales Meet Scholarships
05/20/2008
