|
|
Daily News
|
|
here! Comes Gay TV
New gay-themed television station preparing for its 24/7 launch.
Friday, April 16, 2004
By Lisa Johnson
|
here! TV, the nation's first programming service appealing to gay and lesbian
audiences, is extending its service beyond its current offering of three to
six pay-per-view selections per month, effective October 1. After that, it will launch
a full, 24/7 schedule of movies, new original series, classic films and television
series and other general entertainment content.
The service will also launch an SVOD service consisting of 30 hours per month
on June 1, 2004, and make the pay-per-view slate currently on DirecTV and Echostar
available to cable operators via VOD or pay per view. All here! TV services
will be offered on a revenue share basis and have the flexibility to offer the
channel to their customers as a pay-per-view service, in four-hour programming
blocks or on a monthly subscription basis.
here! TV also offers a wide spectrum of local marketing support, including local film festival sponsorships, targeted mailings, community events and giveaway promotions, tapping into the growing gay and lesbian consumer market, which exceeds $450 billion annually.
| "here! TV has already gained a strong brand awareness and loyal following in its current pay-per-view form," said Paul Colichman, president of here! TV. "The gay and lesbian community has embraced us because we offer them the broad array of entertaining, original and exclusive content that they've been searching for -- but not finding enough of -- on multi-channel television. We have contemplated a 24/7 service all along, and as such, have acquired over 1,500 hours of content. We are in full production with several exciting new series and movies. Come October 1, the U.S. will have a full-time, general entertainment network aimed at the gay and lesbian audience. Much of the programming will also have strong crossover appeal."
| |
The company has also made four key licensing deals with industry leaders TLA Releasing, Wolfe Video, Strand Releasing and Regent Worldwide Sales. The licenses include nearly 200 titles, comprising the best in gay and lesbian independent cinema.
In addition, here! TV will produce over 200 hours of programming per year, including feature films, documentaries, story form and non-story form series and specials. here! TV has already begun production on multiple episodes of the original series Dante's Cove - a gay and lesbian gothic horror thriller written and directed by Mike Costanza whose short film Mama Says screened in competition at both Cannes and Sundance. Filming on this series has already begun in the Caribbean; and on Weapons of Mass Destruction - an intense spy thriller starring international martial arts superstar Cynthia Rothrock as the first lesbian action hero. Casting is underway for two other lead roles in the series.
| Current here! TV original motion pictures in production or recently finished include: Deadly Skies - a Colonel thrown out of the military because of "don't ask, don't tell" returns with a female colleague to save the world from a killer asteroid; The Sisterhood - horror cult filmmaker Dave Decoteau brings the female version of his successful Brotherhood series to the screen; Too Cool for Christmas - Canadian comic Michael Gelbart wrote this story of a fashion conscious teen who would rather spend Christmas with her boyfriend than her two dads; and Snowman's Pass - a Cliffhanger-style thriller where a female mountain guide faces desperate and deadly criminals.
|
here! TV will also exclusively premiere films from their in-house distribution division. here! distribution handles either all North American rights or worldwide rights on features such as Showboy - a mockumentary account of Six Feet Under producer/writer Christian Taylor's pursuit to be a Las Vegas chorus boy; Merci Dr. Rey - Merchant Ivory's madcap comedy about sex, opera and murder starring Dianne Wiest, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Birkin, Simon Callow and Jerry Hall; Yes Nurse, No Nurse! - the fun Busby Berkeley style musical based on the mega hit Dutch series; and Sordid Lives - Del Shores' hilarious send-up of dysfunctional family life in a small Texas town starring Delta Burke, Olivia Newton-John, Beau Bridges and Bonnie Bedelia. Plus many, many others.
| here! TV was founded by Colichman and Stephen P. Jarchow, film producers and founders and principals of Los Angeles-based film production company Regent Entertainment. Regent Entertainment is an Academy Award-winning full service motion picture studio, producing such critically acclaimed titles as Gods and Monsters (Academy Award and Golden Globe winner, Independent Spirit Award winner), Tom & Viv (2 Academy Award nominations and a Golden Globe nomination), One False Move (Independent Spirit Award winner) and Twilight of the Golds (Screen Actors Guild nomination).
| |
For more information regarding here! TV, contact Alana Watkins of October Strategies,
Inc., Alana@octoberstrategies.com.
|
|
|
|
|
 Email
|
 Print
|
|
|
|
|
|