Sundance Channel

World Screen Weekly, August 16, 2007

COUNTRY: U.S.

LAUNCH DATE: March 1996

OWNERSHIP: The channel is owned by Robert Redford, CBS Corporation and NBC Universal.

NUMBER OF SUBSCRIBERS: 26 million

DESCRIPTION: The Sundance Channel seeks to target self-identified “creatives” and “thought-leaders” with bold and uncompromising films and series not found elsewhere in the U.S. Under the creative leadership of Robert Redford, the channel provides a diverse selection of films, documentaries and original programs unedited and commercial free. It shares its mission of encouraging artistic freedom of expression with the independently operated Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival.

PRESIDENT & CEO: Larry Aidem

EXECUTIVE VP & GENERAL MANAGER,

PROGRAMMING & CREATIVE AFFAIRS: Laura Michalchyshyn

SENIOR VP, ACQUISITIONS, PROGRAMMING

& SCHEDULING: Christian Vesper

EXECUTIVE VP, MARKETING, SPONSORSHIP

& BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT: Kirk Iwanowski

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: The Sundance Channel aggressively pursues programming with a “strong voice and appreciates filmmakers with a point-of-view,” according to Laura Michalchyshyn, the executive VP and general manager of programming and creative affairs. “We do not shy away from tough subject matter.”

This strategy has led to the launch of a number of successful program initiatives over the past year, including the weekly block The Green, which highlights original series and documentaries about the earth’s ecology and concepts of “green living”; One Punk Under God, a documentary series by World of Wonder that follows alternative Christian minister Jay Bakker; and the acquired series Live From Abbey Road, a 12-part weekly show that features performances and interviews with more than 30 groundbreaking musicians.

Since 2005, the channel has been shifting its focus increasingly towards series. The Sundance Channel packed its schedule exclusively with films for almost all of its first 10 years of broadcasting. Now the balance has shifted to roughly 75 percent films and 25 percent series. Of these, 80 percent is acquired material; original productions make up the other 20 percent.

Sundance takes advantage of its valuable prime-time slot to premiere original series and one-offs. Its daytime schedule is filled with series, features and documentaries that have previously aired on the channel. Its nighttime slots are reserved for uncut features and documentaries, as well as themed film blocks like Midnight Snack—a Friday night showcase of “cult, creepy and craven filmmaking”—and Asia Extreme, a Sunday night block of Asian horror movies.

Even though the Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival are independent of the channel, they heavily influence its programming. “The mission and philosophy of the Sundance Institute and all of its programs, including the Sundance Film Festival, are at the core of Sundance Channel’s DNA,” Michalchyshyn says. “Everything that airs on Sundance Channel is filtered through a ‘Sundance’ lens.” The channel broadcasts ten days of exclusive behind the scenes coverage of the festival, and later acquires many films and documentaries that are screened at the event. Festival alumni such as Brett Morgen, Ivy Meeropol, Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey have been recruited by the channel to create original programming.

WHAT’S NEW: The Sundance Channel is planning to increase the number of series it broadcasts, including five new exclusive premieres this fall: Sin City Law, by Denis Poncet and Jean Xavier de Lestrade, is an original eight-part documentary series that goes inside four recent criminal trials in Las Vegas, Nevada; Nimrod Nation is an original eight-part documentary series created and executive produced by Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture, Chicago 10) that provides a portrait of a small town obsessed with its high-school basketball team; Best of Youth follows two Italian brothers through four decades beginning in the 1960s, and covers some of the most dramatic events in recent Italian history; The Education of Miss Groves is a 4×30-minutes series produced by NBC News Productions that charts the year-long struggle of a rookie English teacher as she attempts to inspire and educate sixth graders at an overcrowded inner-city school; and the third season of Iconoclasts, an original six-part series featuring two leading innovators from different fields who come together to discuss their passions and creative processes. While the Sundance Channel is commercial-free, Iconoclasts marks the introduction of a sponsorship- and branded-entertainment strategy as it is co-produced by Grey Goose Entertainment, the production arm of Bacardi’s Grey Goose Vodka.

In addition to its linear offerings, the Sundance Channel plans to continue the expansion of its online presence to connect and cultivate a community of loyal users. “Sundancechannel.com both enhances and extends the programming on the linear network. In addition to being a communication tool, the website is another platform on which to sample Sundance Channel programming, get more information on issues explored on air, and be part of a larger community,” says Michalchyshyn. The core of the website is split into two sections: Vision, which presents show information in a visual manner through schedules, video players and “film pages” with background information; and Voice, which packs in anything that’s editorial or opinion-oriented such as blogs and forums.

Sundance Channel is continuing to program its content across all new-media platforms, including online, video on demand, mobile devices and within virtual world applications. “Sundance Channel aims to deliver content to its viewers across all platforms and technologies, whenever and wherever they consume entertainment,” says Michalchyshyn.

WEBSITE: www.sundancechannel.com

—By Nathaniel Berke