Through the Wire

One Six Eight Design Group of San Francisco has come up with an eye-catching batch of IDs for National Geographic Channel, all tagged with the network's umbrella slogan, "Always Wonder."

Each of the 11 spots, some of which just broke, begin in a different section of NGC's "BaseCamp" studio set in Washington, then segue to wildlife scenes. The concept was born on a sketch on the back of an envelope, said One Six Eight creative director Brad Solderlund. (The set itself is seen on the network's weekly series Inside BaseCamp, which features explorers and celebrities.)

Viewers will marvel at "how our studio ceiling is morphed into an African sky peppered by a moving cloud of bats," said NGC senior vice president of brand management Lorraine Snebold.

In other spots previewed by The Wire, the camera moves from a skeletal shark jaw to footage of a shark breeching in the sea; shows the studio's blue floor transforming into an ocean scene; and scans BaseCamp's wall map of the South Pacific region as it comes alive with computer-generated fish.

There are lifers, and then there are Time-Lifers. Time Warner Cable vice president and spokesman Mike Luftman is both: His tenure with various entities associated with what's now AOL Time Warner Inc. stretches back some 30 years, he told The Wire last week.

The context: Luftman has announced plans to retire at the end of March to do some writing and some volunteer work, as well as spend more time with his racing-ready Camaro. What is it about cable guys and fast cars, anyway?

The company line from ABC Cable Networks and The Walt Disney Co. has been that Maureen Smith will stay on as president of the newly acquired ABC Family. But with ABC Television Network president Steve Bornstein currently running the programming show at the former Fox Family Channel, industry insiders expect Smith to be replaced.

According to sources, a couple of names have surfaced as possible Smith successors, including former Hallmark Channel chief Margaret Loesch and Linda Mancuso, president of Peter Engel Productions, part of NBC Enterprises.

ABC Cable last week referred questions to the ABC Television Network, which didn't return calls. Loesch couldn't be reached either, but an associate said she's talking to a number of prospective employers.

Despite EchoStar Communications Corp.'s ongoing dispute with The Walt Disney Co. over carriage of its ABC Family channel, the direct-broadcast satellite company doesn't appear to have an aversion to all things Disney.

EchoStar plans to hold its annual dealer summit in April in one of the Mouse's key stomping grounds — Orlando, Fla.

Satellite dealers who attend the summit will get an advanced look at some of the DBS equipment, including a personal video recorder with high-definition television capabilities that EchoStar's Dish Network plans to introduce during the next year. If the proposed merger with DirecTV Inc. parent Hughes Electronics Corp. goes through, the Dish dealer summit might surpass other satellite trade events in relevance to retailers.

The National Cable Television Cooperative feels vindicated that it wasn't "duped" into paying NBC Cable a pricey surcharge for CNBC and MSNBC's Salt Lake City Olympics coverage, since it feels those outlets have been relegated to carrying the most low-profile events imaginable.That means coverage of such scintillating sports as cross-country skiing and curling, as well as "long-form" hockey coverage. NBC, in contrast, retains stellar events like figure skating and skiing.

Nonetheless, the NCTC is prepping its small-operator members to deal with calls from subscribers complaining that they're not getting any Olympics on cable, according to co-op senior vice president of programming Frank Hughes. Operators have been advised to explain — in part through press releases — how NBC's broadcast network has hogged the best events and to describe, in detail, how high the surcharge was.

During the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, CNBC and MSNBC ran crawls on systems not carrying the event on cable. Those crawls advised viewers that their cable operators had opted not to carry the Olympic events. If CNBC and MSNBC run those crawls again, some NCTC members are threatening not to air their feeds during those periods, Hughes said.

NBC Cable president David Zaslav — who hailed the Olympic events MSNBC and CNBC has received as of "prime interest to sports fans," particularly the extensive hockey coverage — said he's not sure if that crawl will run again.

The Jan. 20 ratings performance of a 13-year-old made-for-TV movie on Lifetime Television —I Know My Name Is Steven — left some researchers scratching their heads last week.

The fact-based movie, first shown in 1989, was basic cable's most-watched film for the week of Jan. 14 and the medium's 15th-highest rated show during January.

Steven tells the story of a young boy who was kidnapped in 1972 and raised by the kidnapper. After the kidnapper took another boy eight years later, Steven Stayner called police and was reunited with his family in 1980. But the story did not end happily. The year the telepic came out, 24-year-old Steven was killed in a motorcycle accident.

Out West, interest in the film may well have been stoked when Steven's real-life family returned to the news. Steven's older brother, Cary, will soon stand trial as a serial killer who allegedly murdered a naturalist and three tourists in California's Yosemite Valley.