cable group

In another sign of a growing appetite for original programming on cable television, a leading cable group is adding a third channel to its lineup and stepping up its commitment to original scripted series.

FX Networks, part of News Corporation, will introduce the FXX cable channel on Sept. 2, executives told advertising agency executives and reporters at an upfront presentation in Midtown Manhattan Thursday morning. The presentation was among dozens that channels, networks and newcomers like Crackle, DirecTV and Participant Media are hosting — many earlier than in previous years — before the start of the 2013-14 television season.

FXX, which will be aimed at viewers ages 18 to 34 (and the marketers that seek to reach them), will join two other channels under the FX Networks umbrella at the Fox Cable Entertainment Group: FX, which is aimed at viewers ages 18 to 49, and FXM, for FX Movie Channel, which was formerly known as Fox Movie Channel, aimed at viewers 25 to 54.

Along with the introduction of FXX, FX Networks will also introduce its own version of TV Everywhere, the shorthand term for efforts to make cable programming available beyond cable television to authenticated subscribers who want to watch shows on devices like smartphones and tablets.

The FX Networks version of TV Everywhere, called FX Now, will carry commercials and include an app and expanded access to content that can be watched on video-on-demand platforms.

Among the other channels rushing to add original series — in pursuit of higher ratings from viewers and more advertising dollars from marketers — are AE, ABC Family, AMC, BBC America, Bravo, Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movie Channel, History, Lifetime, Oxygen, Syfy, TBS, TNT and USA.

The goal is to have viewers and advertisers consider FXX, FX and FXM as “three adult siblings from the same family,” said John Landgraf, president and general manager at FX Networks.

Mr. Landgraf answered an unspoken question: with all the channels already available on cable, why bring out another?

“Consumers need well-defined programming brands as a filter to cut through the clutter,” he said, predicting that the distinct identity that FX has earned through years of cutting-edge programming like “The Shield,” “Nip/Tuck,” “Damages” and “Rescue Me” would help its new sibling get off the ground.

Across the three channels, there are plans to offer 25 original scripted series over the next three years, he added, likening that scheduling to what can be found on the major broadcast networks of ABC, CBS and NBC.

In fact, Mr. Landgraf said, the intent is to “begin to challenge the broadcast networks,” which he criticized for the sameness of their programming and their efforts to be “all things to all people.”

FXX will begin with three original situation comedies that are moving there from FX, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “The League” and “Legit.” Also, a weekly late-night show on FX, “Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell,” will expand to a schedule of five nights a week — original episodes from Monday through Thursday and a compilation show on Sunday — when it shifts to FXX.

FXX will schedule a total of four original sitcoms in 2013, Mr. Landgraf said, and six next year, along with original scripted dramas. FXX, like FX, will also carry theatrical movies and reruns of broadcast network series like “Arrested Development” and “Parks and Recreation.”

FX will add more original sitcoms to its lineup of comedy series that currently includes “Archer,” “Louie” and “Wilfred,” he said, as well as more original dramas to join returning drama series like “The Americans,” “Justified” and “Sons of Anarchy.” There will also be more original miniseries and limited series, to join returnees that include “American Horror Story.”

Mr. Landgraf also described plans for original series, both confirmed and in the pilot process, from marquee-name creators and producers like the Coen brothers, who will serve as executive producers of a limited series for FX based on their hit movie “Fargo”; Guillermo del Toro, working on a series, “The Strain,” based on his trilogy of novels about vampires; Paul Giamatti, who will be an executive producer of “Mayflower,” a look at the founding of the Plymouth colony; and Sam Mendes, who will be an executive producer of “Grand Hotel,” about a luxury hotel in Paris attacked by terrorists (and no relation to the famed MGM movie of the same name).

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/business/media/a-new-channel-fxx-hopes-to-extend-the-fx-brand.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Nascar has begun a new advertising push to attract young, urban and multicultural fans to augment their current audience of predominantly older, rural, white men, Stuart Elliott writes. Nascar hired Ogilvy Mather Worldwide, a sophisticated Madison Avenue giant, to handle a campaign that would include commercials in Spanish and emphasize online offerings like Nascar.com and the 2013 edition of Fantasy Nascar. The initiative will be formally introduced on Sunday during coverage of the Daytona 500 on Fox and will feature television commercials with drivers standing in dramatic poses making emotional statements for the camera.

Finally, Neil Genzlinger explains, the Esquire Network, an NBC property that will replace the little-known G4 channel, is going to define what a modern man is. Bonnie Hammer, head of NBC’s cable group, described the channel as “an upscale Bravo for men,” and the network’s general manager, Adam Stotsky, said it would define modern men as interested in more than “tattoos or pawn shops or storage lockers or axes or hillbillies.” Little is known about the Esquire Network’s plans for alternative entertainment, but proposed shows like “Knife Fight” (a cooking show that appears to be indistinguishable from the others on TV) and “The Getaway” (a travel show that may prove redundant when there is already a Travel Channel) seem quite similar to “the low-aspiration gunk” that pervades many cable channels, Mr. Genzlinger says.

First Response is advertising its pregnancy test and ovulation prediction kit for Spanish-speaking audiences for the first time, Tanzina Vega reports. The ads first aired on Monday on networks like Univision, Galavision, Telemundo and MTV Tres. They contain the same message as First Response’s English ads but feature Cynthia Olavarría, actress and the former Miss Puerto Rico. First Response will also introduce a microsite, TheFirstResponseDifference.com, to complement the commercials.

The Walt Disney Company announced on Monday that Hong Kong Disneyland had turned a profit for the first time, Brooks Barnes writes. The seven-year-old park made $14 million during the last fiscal period, not staggering but certainly an improvement over the $31 million lost over the previous period. The question for the future is how Disney’s mega-resort, planned to open in Shanghai in 2015, will affect the Hong Kong park.

“Argo,” “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Searching for Sugar Man” were the big cinematic winners at the Writer’s Guild Awards, Melena Ryzik writes. “Argo” has now swept the major guild awards, which includes producers and directors as well as writers, meaning that the film is a presumptive favorite for the coveted best picture Oscar.

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/the-breakfast-meeting-nascar-tries-to-expand-its-audience-and-esquire-network-defines-the-modern-man/?partner=rss&emc=rss

A New Channel, FXX, Hopes to Extend the FX Brand

Media Decoder Blog: The Breakfast Meeting: Nascar Tries to Expand Its Audience and Esquire Network Defines the Modern Man

Recent News

Partners