Outdoor-Lifestyle Nets Posting Carriage Gains

By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 10/24/2011 12:01:00 AM

WFN: World Fishing Network has made its first carriage catch in the New York metro area, launching on Cablevision Systems’ sports tier on Oct. 27.

The bow is the 24-hour fishing lifestyle network’s latest distribution advance as it joins category players Outdoor Channel and Sportsman Channel in continuing to build their subscriber bases via launches in new markets, upgrades from tier positioning and high-definition service rollouts.

WFN will be available on Cablevision’s 23-network iO Sports & Entertainment Pak, which retails for $6.95 per month. Network officials are excited about breaking through in the nation’s top market and believe WFN will appeal to ardent anglers in and around Cablevision’s home base on Long Island.

“Cablevision is not our biggest affiliate deal, but it’s a symbolic one,” WFN senior vice president of content distribution Sean Luxton said. “It’s great to be in New York and I think Cablevision subscribers are going to find WFN to be a valuable resource in an area where people enjoy many different kinds of fishing.”

Luxton noted that WFN, which is available to some 30 million homes, has carriage on Comcast in Philadelphia, but not in northern New Jersey, part of the New York DMA. The network, which has a fishing license, so to speak, with Time Warner Cable is now pursuing carriage contracts with that MSO’s systems and is pushing hard for a pact in New York.

The deals with those MSOs aside, WFN last month debuted on Bright House Network’s Sports Pass package.

Sportsman Channel, which now counts some 27 million subs, hit the target with a number of Comcast markets, including the cable operator’s home of Philadelphia with both the standard-definition and HD versions last spring.

HD rollouts ensued in Little Rock, Ark, Chicago, Charleston, S.C. and Sarasota, Fla. The network’s standard- def version moved to Comcast’s Digital Preferred tier, alongside its HD bow in Orlando.

Customers of Dish Network, the charter distributor for Sportsman’s HD simulcast service in February 2010, can check out a freeview of the channel, which the No. 2 satellite-TV provider locates on its America’s Top 250 and Outdoor Sports programming packages, through Nov. 3

September was a good month for Outdoor Channel. Previously located on RCN’s HD tier, the network’s standard and HD service became available on the overbuilder’s Premiere level of service, a migration that added some 90,000 subs in New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C. In New England, Outdoor Channel moved up Comcast’s Digital Preferred tier, where it can be accessed by Xfinity customers in greater Boston and Springfield, Mass.; Hartford and New Haven, Conn.; Manchester, N.H., and Burlington, Vt.

During 2011, Outdoor, which is making its mark internationally by reaching some 4.5 million homes, was also quite busy domestically on the HD front, reaching the 10 million home mark in June.

Rob Faris, senior vice president of programming and production at active sports lifestyle proponent Outside Television, said the network, which currently counts some 3 million subscribers in 13 states as part of legacy deals when it was known as Resort Sports Network, is nearing a deal with a major operator.

He would not specify the provider or the timing of the rollout, as the network, which rebranded in June 2010 via a joint venture with Outside magazine, looks to expand beyond its resort roots in such areas as Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Vail, Colo.; and The Hamptons, N.Y.