Ovation TV

World Screen Weekly, July 26, 2007

COUNTRY: U.S.

LAUNCH DATE: October 1996; relaunched on June 20, 2007

OWNERSHIP: Hubbard Media Group and a group of other private investors that includes Arcadia Investment Partners, Corporate Partners II, Perry Capital and The Weinstein Company.

DISTRIBUTION: Nearly 15 million homes via cable and satellite

DESCRIPTION: With the tagline “make life creative,” Ovation TV is the only 24-hour U.S. television network devoted exclusively to the arts, personal creativity and making the arts more accessible to viewers in their daily lives. The channel’s schedule is focused on five key genres: performance, people, art, music and film.

CEO: Charles Segars

COO: Ron Garfield

EXECUTIVE VP:Chad Gutstein

SENIOR VP, PROGRAMMING & PRODUCTION: Kris Slava

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: First launched in October 1996 and acquired by Hubbard Media Group last year, the arts-themed network unveiled its new look on June 20. “The look and feel of the network is much more accessible, brighter and fresher,” says Kris Slava, the senior VP of programming and production at Ovation TV. “It just feels like its part of the current television landscape in a way that I don’t think any art network has ever done it before.”

Slava brings an extensive background in arts programming to Ovation TV, having worked at Bravo, TRIO and A&E. According to Slava, the newly revamped network aims to be an arts channel for the 21st century, with the program offerings reflecting an expanded definition of the arts that now embraces forms that traditionally might have been considered “low-brow” or pop culture.

The underlying premise of Ovation TV, says Slava, is its commitment to airing programming that is accessible to a broad American audience. To kick off its re-launch, the channel staged American Revolutionaries, a 15-day programming event totaling 30 hours. The event, which debuted on July 1 and ended July 15, dedicated its prime-time and weekend schedules to a series of acquired programs that profiled American artists who changed the meaning of art. These type of “thematic festivals” will also be one of the major ways in which the channel will be programmed throughout the year, says Slava. The series covered everyone from musicians like Kurt Cobain to Andy Warhol and the architect Frank Lloyd Wright.The series also profiled artists that were not as recognizable, including the experimental film artist Harry Smith, who began collecting one-of-a-kind folk recordings in the 1940s, and the animator Ub Iwerks, who made the early Disney shorts starring Mickey Mouse.

“With American Revolutionaries, we wanted to emphasize that this is going to be a very American network, and that we’re going to focus on very American topics,” explains Slava.

While the network is dedicated to making arts programming accessible to a broader audience, Slava says that the channel will also “continue to serve traditional constituencies” with fine-arts programming and classical performances.

Ovation TV is currently devoting each prime-time night to five specific genres, which form the foundation of the channel’s schedule. Monday night is dedicated to “performance,” which includes all classical performances, dance and theatre. Tuesday night is focused on “people,” and features profiles of artists from various genres and disciplines. Wednesday, meanwhile, will be devoted to “art,” which can range from painting and sculpture to architecture, photography and design. Thursday nights are focused on “music,” with an emphasis on what Slava refers to as an “adult alternative mix” that includes country, jazz, blues, world music and contemporary music. On Friday nights, the channel is focused on “film,” which is a new area for Ovation TV and is one of the main differentiators between its previous and current incarnations.

More than 95 percent of the network’s programming schedule is currently comprised of acquisitions, but Slava hopes to gradually increase the amount of original production for the network. The channel acquires content from a wide spectrum of producers and distributors. “Its like going to a swap meet or flea market,” explains Slava. “I canvass the entire world; my specialty is finding programs that haven’t aired before and bringing them back.”

Ovation TV currently has partnerships with a variety of major cultural institutions and educational institutions such as The Harlem School of the Arts in New York City and P.S. ARTS in Los Angeles.

WHAT’S NEW: Ovation TV will launch Art or Not on August 12, an original one-hour special that will be the centerpiece of a two-week programming event that will “explore the way and the reasons that different types of art speak to different people.”

The channel will also debut a 6×30-minute series with the working title Art & the City, which will explore the connection between art and travel. It will travel to various cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, London and Paris and will feature two iconic institutions, as well as upcoming local artists, in each of the cities. It is set to premiere early in the fourth quarter of this year.

Slava also believes that the Ovation TV brand can be exploited across various platforms, particularly through the channel’s recently re-launched website. He hopes to use Ovation TV’s website to showcase “more specialized pieces of programming” that the channel doesn’t have the time to run on the linear network, and to use the VOD platform to present localized and specialized cultural and art offerings within various markets across the country.

WEBSITE: www.ovationtv.com

—By Irene Lew