VisionTV

World Screen Weekly, May 24, 2007

COUNTRY: Canada

LAUNCH DATE: September 1988

NUMBER OF SUBSCRIBERS: VisionTV is distributed across Canada on basic cable and is available in 7.8 million households.

OWNERSHIP: S-VOX, a Canadian multimedia company that offers television and digital content for individuals seeking spiritual awareness and personal growth. In addition to VisionTV, S-VOX operates One: the Body, Mind & Spirit Channel and The Christian Channel. Other ventures include VisionTV International, a partnership with Toronto-based Ellis Entertainment that develops, produces and distributes original programming for the global marketplace; and Christian Media Sales, a product-marketing and media-buying company.

DESCRIPTION: VisionTV is a Canadian multi-faith, multicultural broadcaster that programs a wide variety of genres, from documentaries and informational programming to big-budget blue-chip event programming such as The Lost Tomb of Jesus to American drama series like 7th Heaven and feature films.

PRESIDENT & CEO, S-VOX: Bill Roberts

COO & SENIOR VP OF PROGRAMMING: Mark Prasuhn

CFO & VP, FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION: Jane Macnaughton

DIRECTOR OF INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION: Joan Jenkinson

DIRECTOR OF PROGRAM ACQUISITIONS: Beverley Shenken

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: One of the most high-profile properties to come out of the documentary world this year was The Lost Tomb of Jesus. Executive produced by James Cameron and directed by Simcha Jacobovici, the film chronicled the investigation of 2,000-year-old artifacts related to Jesus of Nazareth and Mary Magdalene. VisionTV was the Canadian broadcast partner for the special, co-produced with Discovery Channel in the U.S. According to Mark Prasuhn, the COO and senior VP of programming at parent company S-VOX, The Lost Tomb of Jesus was the channel’s flagship title this year, and represents an area that VisionTV is looking to build—international co-productions. “They are such a natural for our network,” Prasuhn explains. “There’s not really an issue of borders to most of what we do,” he says, noting that VisionTV is focused on targeting viewers of all faiths.

The channel’s programming mix is as broad as its target audience, with a slate culled from both Canadian commissions—“we have a 65-percent Canadian content requirement in VisionTV’s schedule,” Prasuhn says—and international acquisitions. In terms of in-house productions, VisionTV has been producing the current-affairs show 360 Vision for the past five years. “It has run its course now so at the end of the current season we’ll finish it up,” Prasuhn says. “Our programming strategy from the get-go, mainly out of financial necessity, was to work with Canadian independent producers and non-Canadian distributors to acquire our schedule.”

VisionTV’s daytime schedule, which Prasuhn says runs from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., is made up of paid programming, mostly from Christian ministries. “At 3 p.m. we start what we call our cornerstone schedule. There are some documentaries. Starting at 4 o’clock we go into our dramas, the family friendly shows [like] Everwood, Touched by An Angel, I’ll Fly Away. The British comedies come in from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., [which] usually [feature] a major character who is a priest or a person in a faith role of some kind. We’re ramping up that presence in the schedule. Then from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. we have a mix. There are movies on Tuesday and Thursday nights. We do the Australian drama series McLeod’s Daughters. We have a couple of documentary strands, one called Enigma, which is covering various spirituality-related mysteries. And then we run The Gaither Gospel Hour, which is one of our top-rated shows, on Fridays at 9. Then at 11 p.m. it’s more factual programming, much of which we’ve commissioned in Canada.”

The channel’s Canadian commissions have included 5 Seekers, a six-part factual series from Seekers Television, the documentary The Geometry of Love from Moving Films and Les Productions Colin Neal, and Recreating Eden, from Merit Motion Pictures, which is heading into its fourth season.

Prasuhn, who says that NATPE, MIPTV, MIPCOM and BBC Showcase are his key markets, explains that the channel aims to be “flexible and opportunistic” in its acquisitions strategy. “If a great idea comes along that we think can speak to our audience, we try to work it into the schedule. We’re quite open and are always looking for great ideas.”

WHAT’S NEW: Since assuming oversight of programming at S-VOX earlier this year, Prasuhn has been looking to place “more emphasis on the verticals,” he says. “We’re looking at stunts and special events relating to the moments in the calendars of different faiths. We’ve done a little bit of that around Christmas and Easter. We haven’t tended to broaden that out to events like [the Muslim observances] Ramadan and Eid. We want to do more of that.”

VisionTV is also exploring new-media opportunities, with plans to further develop its website into more than just a promotional, informational tool. “We did an experiment last year, a podcast, called My God Pod. It was devotional praise music. We’re regrouping and testing and trying to determine what our next step will be. We were happy with the results of our first foray there. That will help point the way in terms of mobile, which we are talking about.”

WEBSITE: www.visiontv.ca

—By Mansha Daswani