Asian Channel’s New Price: Free

Rebranded Mnet Seeks Basic-Cable Distribution

By R. THOMAS UMSTEAD -- Multichannel News, 3/21/2011 12:01:00 AM

Mnet, a cable channel aimed at Asian-Americans, is hoping to gain basic-cable carriage distribution by offering its service free to operators.

The network, formerly dubbed ImaginAsian TV, is hoping to reach young Asian Americans with a mix of Korean-based music, films and drama series that can also have a broader appeal among mainstream American audiences, according to Mnet board director Adam Ware.

Currently in 8 million homes through carriage deals with Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications, Cox Communications and Verizon Communications, Ware said the network’s recent relaunch under its new owners — South Korea-based entertainment company CJ Media purchased ImaginAsian Entertainment from private investors last year — should aid the network’s development.

“CJ Media looks at the United States as being an opportunity to bring what is currently hot in Asia to fans of cool programming,” Ware said. “We’re not just looking to reach expats. There’s an opportunity to bring American audiences popular programming from Asia on a dedicated channel.”

K-POP ON AGENDA

Th e network will launch several new, mostly Englishlanguage series that focus on emerging Korean K-pop music genre, English-dubbed films that showcase Asia’s popular horror, anime and sci-fi genres, and Korean soap-opera “dramas.” Among the new shows set to debut on the channel later this year are BPM, an original daily strip series that highlights the latest trends in Asian pop culture, and Short Notice, a two-hour weekly series that showcases the best of Asian-American short fi lms.

The network has also acquired a package of 40 featurelength films from China, Thailand, the Philippines, Japan and Korea for distribution during a primetime block on Friday and Saturday nights, and has teamed with Japan-based anime production company Bandai Entertainment to create a Wednesday-night block featuring popular anime series.

The network, which will launch an HD feed in fourth quarter 2011, will offer a significant amount of music videos and anime product on its website, according to the network.

Mnet will look to mine a category that has traditionally been underserved on cable outside of foreign-language channels. Comcast attempted to fill the void in the mid 2000s with the AZN Network, but pulled the plug in 2008, deeming it financially unsustainable.

In an effort to gain increased distribution, Ware said the network will forgo distributor licensing fees and concentrate on generating revenue via ad sales.

UPSCALE DEMOS

The network’s target 18-to-49-year-old Asian-American audience delivers upscale demos. Asian-Americans more than $550 billion in annual buying power, and have a personal average income of nearly $60,000, more than whites or any other ethnic group, according to the network.

“As nice and reliable as a sub fee is, it doesn’t really require you to push really hard to build out programming efforts, which are mostly supported by advertisers,” he said.

Ware added the network is pushing for basic-tier carriage rather than distribution via traditional ethnic-themed and foreign-language tiers. “We are a youth lifestyles channel akin to MTV, BET and E!,” he said. “We would like to build this marketplace to the widest possible audience.”

Ware said the network would be a perfect fit for Comcast, which has expressed plans to launch several minority- targeted networks as part of its merger deal with NBC Universal.

Representatives from Comcast could not be reached for comment by press time.