New Premium Channel May Feature SVOD Component
MGM EVP Lee Says It Could Complement Linear Launch For Paramount, Lionsgate, MGM Service
By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 4/21/2008 9:41:00 PM
While the upcoming premium channel from Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM is seeking linear carriage, the service may also count digital subscribers when it launches in fall 2009.
Douglas A. Lee, executive vice president of MGM Worldwide Digital Media, said that while the service, which will showcase new theatricals from the three studios in the pay TV window, is designed to have traditional linear carriage, there also figures to be complementary digital components at birth.
“There will be a strong video-on-demand element,” said Lee. “There could be a subscription VOD product.”
In making the announcement Sunday, Viacom president and CEO Philippe Dauman --whom Lee described as “the driver” behind the joint venture, which came together with “the three studios working very hard, 24/7, for a week” -- said it had a chance “to be a game changer for the industry. We are building an innovative service that will use traditional and new digital distribution technologies to bring great film and television entertainment directly to the consumer.”
Viacom vice president of corporate communications Kelly McAndrew, when asked Monday whether the unnamed JV property would debut, as some sources believe, as a hybrid combining linear and on-demand distribution, as well as an ad-supported online element, declined to describe the structure. She did say it would be “a new, innovative, full entertainment service. Things will develop over time.”
Viacom, whose MTV Networks unit will supply marketing and affiliate support, is the JV’s “lead investor,” McAndrew said. “It will capitalize on strengths of Viacom, with the infrastructure for affiliate and marketing services coming from MTV Networks and strong content from Paramount.”
Although the unit, also featuring library fare from the partners, as well as Paramount Vantage and United Artists, will operate out of Viacom’s headquarters in New York, things were unclear at press time from a personnel perspective. Final contract negotiations with the chief executive are continuing, with the JV expected to announce its leader “very shortly,” said McAndrew.
However, McAndrew would not comment specifically when queried if MTVN executive vice president Denise Dahlberg would add the JV to her affiliate responsibilities.
On the programming side, MGM’s Lee said that with the three partners contributing the new service would be more “first-run-oriented,” and not have as much as library fare. “It will start out with features, with TV series added later.”
It was not clear, though, how it would be programmed -- if themed or studio nights were in the game plan. “No decision has been made yet on a programming chief,” he said.
The theatrical fare will be carved out from the output deals that have been tied to Showtime Networks Inc. Executives at CBS Corp.'s premium network cited “outrageous” license fee demands from the three studios and the declining importance of movies to its business plan, as reasons it opted not to renew the output deals. To that end, its deal with Paramount -- a former sister company until CBS, under the direction of Les Moonves was split off in 2006 -- expired at the end of 2007 and will conclude with Lionsgate and MGM at year-end.
Given the year lag time between theatrical releases and then up to an 18-month run in the pay TV window, Showtime will have access to the studios’ new titles early into the next decade.
“We have deals for product from the suppliers through 2010- 2011 and will continue to have that output,” said Showtime chairman and CEO Matt Blank.
Blank noted that Showtime would continue to invest in its rising stable of original series, which now includes such notables as Weeds, Californication, Dexter and The Tudors, and obtain films from other suppliers.
“Our original programming will continue to dominate our slate,” he said. “We don’t anticipate having fewer films, but we will have movies from different suppliers.”
For its part, the JV marks MGM's second domestic network play. The first, MGM HD, which has distribution pacts with DirecTV, FiOS TV, RCN Corp. and some smaller cable operators, taps MGM’s vast 4,100-title library and such original content as exclusive behind-the-scenes coverage of red carpet events; sneak peeks at new films in production; seasonal promotions; world premieres of newly re-mastered MGM films and TV shows; DVD releases; and VOD fare. In short: all things MGM.
As for the upcoming premium service, MGM is preparing to bring projects to the venture, including the newly acquired Robert Ludlum's The Maratese Circle, and new iterations of the RoboCop and The Outer Limits franchises. Additionally, it will be a case of managing library product for the joint venture and MGM HD.
Take the 007 franchise, for instance. “Things like the James Bond franchise would be parsed out correctly between both the JV and the branded MGM network, so it could benefit both,” Lee said. “We’ll make sure that the windows work for both services.”
Asked where negotiations stood with Comcast, relative to launching MGM HD, Lee said the operator, which owns 20% of the studio, has been “a great partner. Comcast is the leading distributor in the market. We’d certainly like to have a position there.”
Although he wouldn’t comment specifically, Lee’s anticipating “a very big” MGM HD distribution announcement in the “next couple of weeks.”
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