ExerciseTV Bulks Up Content, Revenue

By Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 3/15/2010 3:40:53 PM

ExerciseTV, the video-on-demand programmer part-owned by fitness personality Jake Steinfeld, is lifting more weight in the contest for ad sales dollars in the home-fitness category.

The four-year-old network—also part-owned by Comcast, sneaker maker New Balance and Time Warner Cable — said it is coming off a 2009 campaign in which it posted a 48% revenue increase.

On-demand views of its 150-plus-video lineup averaged 6.5 million per month in 2009, up 17% from 2008, it said. A model that includes VOD ad sales and sales of DVDs in retail stores and online has paid dividends, ExerciseTV general manager Chris Mansolillo said.

He credited original content from some of the bestknown names in the genre, including Jillian Michaels, trainer on NBC’s weight-loss reality series The Biggest Loser, and Tae Bo workout hawker Billy Blanks Jr.

“We are basically telling consumers that instead of going to a store and buying a DVD, viewers can access ExerciseTV programming free on our TV channel,” Mansolillo said. Most network revenue comes from advertising on the VOD channel, which is offered to affiliates for no license fee. It claims some 37 million subscribers and affiliate deals with Comcast, TWC, Cox Communications, Verizon Communications, AT&T, Insight Communicatiomns, Blue Ridge Communications, Bresnan Communications, TiVo, GCI and LodgeNet.

Ads mostly air prior to on-demand shows, but some also appear on the lower third of the screen during the program. A scan of March videos revealed ads for Bayer Asprin and Soyjoy nutrition bars.

Mansolillo said viewers are drawn to personalities like Michaels, Blanks and Cindy Whitmarsh, and to catchy titles like Michaels’s Bootylicious franchise.

Michaels’s new workout title, Yoga Meltdown, premieres on ExerciseTV this month prior to its release on DVD. Two other titles inspired by Loser—30-Day Jumpstart and Last Chance Workout — also debut on the network this month.

In addition to Web and home-video rivals, the service is up against Discovery Communications-owned cable channel FitTV and Grace Creek Media’s VOD service Sportskool.

“It’s a tough category to grow,” Gary Lico, CEO of cablenetwork research firm CableU.tv, said, while conceding fitness videos on demand is a viewer convenience. “The Biggest Loser aside, when it comes to fitness on TV, if you’re doing it, you don’t need to watch it. And if you’re not doing it, why watch it?”

Mansolillo said people are watching because they are also doing — and getting fitness results.

“They’re getting up off the couch and showing body transformations,” he said.