VisionTV charity eyes future as digital content provider, after selling assets to Moses Znaimer

Armed with $25-million from the sale of VisionTV and other television assets to a company owned by CITY-TV pioneer Moses Znaimer, the charity (VTV) that controlled the services is looking to digital content creation and unregulated media channels as just two of the potential money-makers to fill its coffers in the future, says VisionTV president and CEO Bill Roberts. Under an agreement announced this week, publicly traded ZoomerMedia Ltd. will acquire the VisionTV specialty channel, as well as two smaller religious channels . VTV, which is a registered charity, will remain under the control of the board of directors of parent company S-VOX. Speaking to staff on Monday, Roberts said VTV’s board “will determine what charitable activities it will undertake in support of its mandate” which is to produce and distribute, in all formats, content designed to “reflect and to respect Canada’s faith communities and the religious, ethical and moral concerns of those communities”. “The Vision TV Board is excited about the possibility of pursuing the Charity’s original mandate through new approaches and lines of business. Although no decision on the future direction of the company has been taken yet, the Board is considering creating a new company to develop interfaith and diversity-oriented content and distributing it via digital media such as broadband, and mobile,” Roberts said. In an interview with Tech Media Reports, Roberts says VTV has already done some of the research for such a change. “Back in 2006, my executive management committee and I did some groundwork with regard to...broadband or digital or online,” he says, adding that the research was revised in 2007 and 2009. “That work will go to the charity.” The result could be an online service similar to Beliefnet – a U.S.-based web presence featuring blogs, videos and journals covering spiritual and religious matters. Roberts points out that VisionTV considered acquiring Beliefnet a couple of years ago, but it wasn’t meant to be. “I got into a bidding war with Fox. Unfortunately a charity’s pockets are not as deep as Rupert Murdoch’s.” Deeper pockets and stronger negotiating position under ZoomerMedia As a publicly traded company, Roberts says ZoomerMedia is in a better position to help S-VOX’s properties prevail in the face of technological and regulatory change. “Because Vision was a charity, it was very difficult for us to access capital markets and financial expertise, or to issue equity investments,” Roberts says. It was also difficult for the VisionTV channel to fight for better channel placement with BDUs – a battle in which the service has been embroiled for years. The ZoomerMedia deal hasn’t quelled the fight. “I can tell you VisionTV was bounced twice by a certain BDU the day the announcement of this partnership was made,” Roberts says. VisionTV will continue to push for better channel placement. “I think ZoomerMedia and S-VOX are on the same page there,” Roberts says. Targeting the active-baby boomer market, ZoomerMedia owns various assets aimed at that group, including the organization CARP, which advocates on behalf of people aged 45 and up, the 50Plus.com website, and Zoomer Magazine. Alan Sawyer, head of Two Solitudes Consulting, a media advisory company, says the ZoomerMedia/VisionTV agreement makes sense. Both organizations target the same audience (VisionTV watchers tend to be 50 and up), and now they’ll be able to work together across all media to move their messages. “We’re likely to see Moses take that to more of a multiplatform presence,” Sawyer says, recalling Speakers Corner, a phone-booth-shaped box that stood at the corner of Toronto’s CityTV building while Znaimer ran the station. People could go into this miniature TV recording studio and film their thoughts, rants...anything. The results were edited and showcased on the Speakers Corner TV show. “That was a very early iteration of user-generated content, 30 years ago,” Sawyer says, adding that the Speakers Corner idea could very well inform ZoomerMedia’s approach to VisionTV. Asked if VisionTV faced a difficult future if ZoomerMedia hadn’t acquired the media assets, Roberts says that wasn’t the case. The sale is a matter of developing a broader platform to reach the target audience. The deal also jibes with VisionTV’s outsider mindset. “We remain independent – something I’m determined to do,” Roberts says. “This is not a business arrangement with a consolidator, or a BDU for that matter... We remain true to our roots of supporting quality Canadian content and diversity of voices in Canadian programming.” As for Roberts, he will also move over to ZoomerMedia for the completion of the transaction and the transition stage. That will keep him busy for the next 12 months or so. Will he stay with ZoomerMedia? “Lots can happen in a year,” he says. “I’m pretty sure Moses and I want to take these next steps together.” The VisionTV board received a proposal from ZoomerMedia in October 2008 to purchase the broadcast assets of S-VOX for $25 million ($14 million in cash, $11 million by way of a promissory note payable over 10 years). In addition to the VisionTV specialty channel, the acquisition includes CHNU-TV Fraser Valley (Joytv 10) and CIIT-TV Winnipeg (Joytv 11), and VisionTV’s shares in VisionTV Digital Inc., which include a 47% stake in ONE: The Body Mind and Spirit Channel Inc. The deal is subject to CRTC approval. Fairfax Financial Holdings Inc., a Toronto company primarily involved in insurance, has also agreed to acquire $17.6 million worth of ZoomerMedia shares, which is conditional on ZoomerMedia president and CEO Znaimer selling several media and real estate assets he holds to ZoomerMedia. They include: the CRTC licences for CFZM-FM; the New Classical 96.3 FM; 103.1 FM; and CZFM Zoomer Radio AM740. ZoomerMedia also gets Znaimer’s MZTV Production and Distribution Inc. – a TV production company – and all assets related to the ideaCity conference, an annual gathering of artists, economists, scientists and other thought-leaders discussing various topics. VisionTV expects the transition to take eight to nine months. The company says ZoomerMedia has offered all VisionTV employees work terms no less favourable than their existing terms of employment.

VisionTV charity eyes future as digital content provider, after selling assets to Moses Znaimer

News | 06/18/2009 3:09 pm EDT

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