First Out of the Gate: Outdoor Channel’s Roger Werner

Roger Werner is president and CEO of the Outdoor Channel, the longest-standing outdoor programmer. According to Nielsen Media Research, the Outdoor Channel had approximately 30 million cable and satellite subscribers as of June 2007. But Werner is no stranger to the genre, having previously developed the Outdoor Life Network with the backing of AT&T, Comcast and Cox Communications. Before starting OLN, which he sold in 2001, Werner was chief operating officer at ESPN. Werner recently spoke to Multichannel News contributor Luis Clemens about being the self-described “category leader.” An edited transcript follows:

MCN: Is there room for more than one hunting and fishing network?

Roger Werner: Frankly, there is only one in the space — that’s us. [Only one] that has demonstrated staying power, consistent audience generating capability, profitability — by all those measures, we are the only player in the game. The Sportsman Channel is pretty new and pretty small and clearly very far from profitability. So whether they can survive or not I think is an open question you might ask.

In the current marketplace, I would say Outdoor Channel is the category leader. It has been around the longest, it launched actually before we launched Outdoor Life Network at the end of ’95. Outdoor Channel had already been on the air for a little while at that point, so it’s the oldest of the outdoor networks.

It is a profitable business. We are a cash flow positive business with a clean balance sheet, no debt, approximately $70 million in cash on the balance sheet. We have a proven business model and a 13- or 14-year track record at this point.

It has emerged as an even bigger category leader in the last year and a half, primarily as a result of two things happening with our competition. Versus decided it wanted to become a general sports network and moved to de-emphasize the outdoor programming that we had on Outdoor Life Network.

And ESPN recently moved to reduce the number of hours of outdoor programming [on its networks], as well.

With those competitive decisions having been made, we now find ourselves in an even stronger leadership position in the category with our total focus on the hunting, fishing and traditional outdoor space.

MCN: You described Outdoor Channel as the “category leader.” How do you substantiate that description?

RW: I would substantiate it by looking at our cumulative viewership, cumulative audience over a 30-day period. I would also point to testimonials and other kind of anecdotal information from our advertisers who consistently tell us that we are the most powerful television platform for them as advertisers.

We apparently are reaching the right people more frequently than the other alternatives out there, and so they are seeing that effect on their cash register receipts.

MCN: What growth opportunities exist in terms of distribution?

RW: We are in the fortunate position of having 30 million-plus subscribers in hand at the moment. I think realistically we can grow that number to the mid-to-high 30s over the next couple of years. [If] we can drive that number up closer to 40 than 30, we would be substantially increasing the economic viability of the network.

MCN: Right now, ad sales outpace subscriber fees, is that likely to change?

RW: Yes, the mix of revenue is shifting more towards an advertising-supported model.

We are not abandoning the two-revenue-stream model, but we do see ad sales being a bigger percentage of total revenue as we go forward. That is reflected in our new rate card, which actually provides most of our costumers a discounted rate in return for expanded distribution at various levels.

So we are out there effectively offering price incentives for growth and expecting that we will become a more advertising-dependent business as we move forward.