Sponsorship one potential funding alternative for BookTelevision: CHUM

A manager of several CHUM Ltd. specialty television channels says that BookTelevision: The Channel may have to look to alternative revenue sources other than subscriber and traditional advertising revenue to produce content for the channel devoted to books and reading. During a case study of the Category 1 digital specialty channel at the recent World Congress of Arts Producers and Performance in Ottawa, David Kines, who oversees CHUM’s MuchMusic and MuchMoreMusic , suggested that the channel may have to go with an alternative funding model, such as corporate sponsorships. Even with the support of the CHUM machine, numerous challenges confront the diginet. While BookTelevision founder Daniel Richler has tried to add some sizzle to the written word to draw audiences, it can be costly to create the higher Canadian content levels required of Category 1 services versus the Category 2s, which don’t have mandated carriage. Even with more original programming, Richler noted that it’s hard to get people to take BookTelevision seriously as it is often viewed as an obscure service, much like a left-handed curlers niche channel. "We are that joke (about obscurity)," noted Richler, now editor-in-chief and supervising producer of the channel. At the conference session "In the Beginning was the Word," Richler stated that many viewers couldn’t conceive of a channel running 24 hours a day, seven days a week devoted to books. Subscriber numbers and advertising thus far for BookTelevision don’t provide Richler with much of a budget to operate on. As a result, he told Canadian Communications Reports that his idea for programming centering on business publications will probably only come to fruition if a corporate sponsor steps forward. But the funding to produce such shows, even if they are low-budget, isn’t being generated by the some half-a-million subscribers who now get the channel, or by advertisers. In contrast, Paul Gratton, VP and general manager of CHUM specialty channels Space: The Imagination Station and Drive-In Classics, told CCR that the Category 2 Drive-In Classics doesn’t have the same programming challenges. By its nature, Drive-In relies on existing B movies. He said that he can acquire American B movies for as little as $1,000 an hour, and that there are libraries of similar Canadian movies to fulfill the Canadian content requirements. The old B movies, he added, have a built-in audience - unlike BookTelevision - because of the nostalgia factor. "People get a kick out of sitting around and watching movies from the ’60s or ’70s because it reminds them of when they were young," he noted. "What makes it harder for BookTelevision is that people who read don’t tend to watch television," Gratton pointed out. He further noted that the "more difficult sell" of BookTelevision is what probably led the CRTC to grant it more regulatory protection as a Category 1 service. Under the CRTC’s policy framework for digital specialty channels, all large broadcast distributors with digital capacity must carry Category 1 channels. Category 2 services must negotiate distribution individually with each distributor, which can refuse to carry them. CHUM’s SexTV: The Channel and Drive-In Classics, Gratton stated, are more populist and are thus in less need of CRTC protection. Drive-in Classics is faring the best of all the digital channels launched by CHUM, Gratton noted. According to CRTC statistics for 2002, BookTelevision had programming expenditures of $1.05 million and profit before interest and taxes (P.B.I.T.) of negative $699,112. Drive-In Classics had programming expenditures of some $578,000 and P.B.I.T. of negative $526,821. Gratton aims for Drive-In Classics to break even before year-end. Last year, BookTelevision had 372,510 subscribers and Drive-In had 342,877, but the latter hasn’t been able to come to terms with all distributors and is not as widely available as BookTelevision. Richler said at the conference that he remains confident the channel will eventually turn a profit.

Sponsorship one potential funding alternative for BookTelevision: CHUM

News | 11/28/2003 5:00 am EST

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