DOC Channel Sets New Growth Path

Heading into its fourth year of operation, The Documentary Channel (DOC) has set its sights on becoming a major fixture on the cable and satellite landscape in the U.S. For James Ackerman, DOC’s recently installed president and CEO, the first step in achieving that goal was to migrate from being a public-interest service to a full commercial channel.

"We realized that as a public-interest channel, to be perfectly frank, it was going to be very difficult for us to survive," Ackerman tells TV Real Weekly. "The restrictions placed on public-interest channels in terms of the kinds of advertising and sponsorship they can sell makes it very difficult. When you try to navigate your way through that in a very difficult economic climate, it becomes even harder."

Relaunched as a commercial platform in July, DOC now has the freedom to "sell any kind of advertising we want," Ackerman notes. And, as important, DOC was able to enter into a multiyear carriage agreement with DISH, which has 13.6 million customers.

Growing distribution is Ackerman’s number one priority. "We are making a full-court press outreach to every one of the major operators.

"The biggest challenge for any channel coming into the market today is capacity," continues Ackerman, whose long career in TV and media includes stints at BSkyB and at A&E Television Networks, where he led the launch of The History Channel in the U.K. and Latin America.

"The pitch, when we meet with an operator, isn’t just, Here’s our channel, this is what we do, this is the response we’ve gotten from consumers, which is all very positive and wonderful. Our pitch also has to be, We think we can add greater value to you than possibly other channels that you are presently carrying. We have to demonstrate that the level of our viewership and the quality of our viewership is more beneficial to the operator by carrying us than keeping a channel that has less viewership or viewership that has less interest to that particular operator."

Expanding DOC’s programming slate is also a goal, says Ackerman, noting that by becoming a commercial service, the channel has "the ability to invest in programming in a way that we haven’t been able to for the last 12 to 18 months."

In refreshing DOC’s grid, Ackerman is working closely with Tom Neff, the channel’s founder and former president who now serves as chief creative officer. "Tom Neff is an award-winning documentarian. He and I make a wonderful team, in that I focus on the development and growth of the business, while he focuses on the creative aspects of the company."

One of DOC’s selling points, Ackerman says, is that of the 90 percent of the grid that is acquired fare, "65 to 75 percent of those films are at least U.S. television premieres, if not world premieres." This is something that DOC aims to continue building on.

"We are beginning to do a lot more program planning. So in other words, we’re looking out to the future and we’re saying, What’s happening in the world that might affect our choices of programming? We’re looking for a lot. Primarily films that are at least U.S. television premieres and have a promotional hook, either by the nature of the film, the topic, the people involved or that film’s linkage to some kind of anniversary."