Post by dkennedy on Jan 23, 2006 6:32:49 GMT -5
Showtime continues its evolution
Original content will be the backbone of the premium cable channel that had long relied on major movies.
January 21, 2006
By Chase Squires, St. Petersburg Times
PASADENA, Calif. - When premium cable channels started, the "premium" that drew paying customers were the movies those channels showed.
No more, Showtime CEO Matthew Blank told television critics this week. Now that there are so many ways to deliver movies and other programming to consumers, premium channels will live or die on the strength of original content.
Showtime, beamed to about 14-million homes and usually playing second fiddle to HBO, unveiled an impressive lineup of shows.
Planned in the coming year for Showtime are a new season of the drama Huff; a gritty, new 11-episode drama, Brotherhood, about a Providence, R.I., family torn between politics and crime; a six-episode documentary series created by the producers of NPR's This American Life; a drama called Dexter, about a Miami forensics expert who is also a serial killer stalking and torturing criminals; a dramatic series about young King Henry VIII called The Tudors, starring Jonathan Rhys-Myers (Elvis, Match Point); a comedy series produced by Damon Wayans called The Underground; and a string of documentary movies.
Showtime president of entertainment Robert Greenblatt also confirmed the network is in negotiations to pick up Fox's critically acclaimed sitcom Arrested Development. It also will produce another collection of gruesome tales in the Masters of Horror film series, and is signing comedy team Penn & Teller to two more seasons of its series.
Movies will still be used to fill time between originals and entertain subscribers looking for an uncut film, Blank said. But no one will be buying Showtime exclusively for movies they can have mailed to their doorstep on DVD, or buy, or download, or order with the click of a mouse or remote control, he said.
And maybe it's telling that he never mentioned movie theaters.
"Those movies are everywhere," Blank said. "When was the last time you saw a television critic write about a movie that's going to be on Showtime? Consumers don't remember where they've seen those movies. The technology creates a digital supermarket."
HBO, at its presentation to critics last week, touted megahit The Sopranos and newcomer series Big Love, never mentioning blockbuster theatrical movies.
And it isn't just the old guard of pay-cable programming stressing original programming. Entrepreneur Mark Cuban, the money behind HDNet, a television network built on providing high definition content for high-def TVs, admitted even his seemingly cutting-edge approach will have to adapt. When providing high-def is as old hat as announcing a program "in color," Cuban sees HDNet as a provider of fresh content.
"The key is investing in great programming," he told reporters. "That's why we really see ourselves as Baby HBO."'
"As you start thinking about programming moving to mobile devices," Blank said, "programming coming over the Internet, programming going to all different venues, none of us in the premium television business are going to be in a strong position to provide a Mission: Impossible 3 in that environment. But we are going to be in a strong position to provide (Showtime serial) Sleeper Cell, and that's where we're going to put our stake in the ground."
Original content will be the backbone of the premium cable channel that had long relied on major movies.
January 21, 2006
By Chase Squires, St. Petersburg Times
PASADENA, Calif. - When premium cable channels started, the "premium" that drew paying customers were the movies those channels showed.
No more, Showtime CEO Matthew Blank told television critics this week. Now that there are so many ways to deliver movies and other programming to consumers, premium channels will live or die on the strength of original content.
Showtime, beamed to about 14-million homes and usually playing second fiddle to HBO, unveiled an impressive lineup of shows.
Planned in the coming year for Showtime are a new season of the drama Huff; a gritty, new 11-episode drama, Brotherhood, about a Providence, R.I., family torn between politics and crime; a six-episode documentary series created by the producers of NPR's This American Life; a drama called Dexter, about a Miami forensics expert who is also a serial killer stalking and torturing criminals; a dramatic series about young King Henry VIII called The Tudors, starring Jonathan Rhys-Myers (Elvis, Match Point); a comedy series produced by Damon Wayans called The Underground; and a string of documentary movies.
Showtime president of entertainment Robert Greenblatt also confirmed the network is in negotiations to pick up Fox's critically acclaimed sitcom Arrested Development. It also will produce another collection of gruesome tales in the Masters of Horror film series, and is signing comedy team Penn & Teller to two more seasons of its series.
Movies will still be used to fill time between originals and entertain subscribers looking for an uncut film, Blank said. But no one will be buying Showtime exclusively for movies they can have mailed to their doorstep on DVD, or buy, or download, or order with the click of a mouse or remote control, he said.
And maybe it's telling that he never mentioned movie theaters.
"Those movies are everywhere," Blank said. "When was the last time you saw a television critic write about a movie that's going to be on Showtime? Consumers don't remember where they've seen those movies. The technology creates a digital supermarket."
HBO, at its presentation to critics last week, touted megahit The Sopranos and newcomer series Big Love, never mentioning blockbuster theatrical movies.
And it isn't just the old guard of pay-cable programming stressing original programming. Entrepreneur Mark Cuban, the money behind HDNet, a television network built on providing high definition content for high-def TVs, admitted even his seemingly cutting-edge approach will have to adapt. When providing high-def is as old hat as announcing a program "in color," Cuban sees HDNet as a provider of fresh content.
"The key is investing in great programming," he told reporters. "That's why we really see ourselves as Baby HBO."'
"As you start thinking about programming moving to mobile devices," Blank said, "programming coming over the Internet, programming going to all different venues, none of us in the premium television business are going to be in a strong position to provide a Mission: Impossible 3 in that environment. But we are going to be in a strong position to provide (Showtime serial) Sleeper Cell, and that's where we're going to put our stake in the ground."