Gary Lico

President & CEO
CABLEready

While CABLEready has undergone a tremendous amount of growth over recent years—with a catalogue of factual series stocked to meet the varying needs of buyers around the world—its president and CEO, Gary Lico, remains firm on the mantra "don’t spread yourself too thin."

But that hasn’t kept Lico from diversifying CABLEready‘s business lines…quite the opposite, in fact. "Three years ago we started CableU to further solidify our expertise in the U.S. cable market," he explains. "Then last year we started CABLEready Productions, which is primarily a duplication and conversion house, but it also gives us the ability to develop our own CABLEready programs." Though the company has grown and diversified, there are still some elements that Lico is unwavering on. "We’ve stuck to our guns in the sense that we like the crime and entertainment genres. That seems to pay off as well. There are people that come in here with kids’ stuff or sports stuff or what-have-you. It’s just not for us. And frankly, if they went to our website, they’d know that."

Aside from diversification, the heyday of U.S. cable channels as of late has brought in brisk business for CABLEready, from a few different angles. Lico explains: "On the CABLEready front, we’ve never really had trouble getting meetings, but I will say that networks are now more receptive to dealing with new producers. So that’s helpful. Acquisitions have become a little more important on the U.S. front, as programming budgets shift. You can buy a lot more programs than you can produce for a million dollars. I would say those two items are best on the CABLEready side. On the CableU side, this new growth and attention that cable networks have right now have caused more attention to go to CableU."

At the start of every year, Lico writes his goals for the company on a white board in his office. This year’s list covers everything from production projects to cash goals to staffing up. "I have a list of eight original programs that we would like to sell, from various producers, including ourselves," he says of his focus for 2009. "On the other side we have our goals, and this came from a couple of staff meetings where each of us had to come up with some goals for the year. They range from increasing more revenue on certain things, development of a number of new shows per month, bringing some design work inside the company, adding a sales person. Next to it, we have our cash goals for the year, which is only about 40 percent above last year," he adds sarcastically, making light of the tough economic times facing the industry.

Lico also has a number of personal goals for the company, in particular, continued growth and diversity. With more than 30 years in the broadcasting industry under his belt, Lico has still managed to find new projects to reinvigorate his love for what he does. "The whole CableU thing excites me—the writing, the editing, the marketing. I came in today and before I even took my coat off I had two new marketing ideas for CableU. It’s just a fun thing. You can’t give a program away, but you can do things with CableU that you can’t do in selling programs."