Wedding TV Targets International Expansion

LONDON, February 14: Marc Conneely, the chief executive of
Wedding TV, which recently launched on BSkyB in the U.K., tells World Screen
Newsflash about the channel’s programming
strategy and expansion plans, with rollouts slated for Russia, Poland and
Romania by the end of next month.

Wedding TV launched in the U.K. in December looking to tap
into a market that is worth £5.3 billion in the U.K. “In the U.K. alone there
are 36 magazines and 400 exhibitions for weddings,” says Conneely. “We know the
time has certainly come for Wedding TV.”

Conneely notes, however, that the channel is not just about
the wedding itself. “It really is from the first date to the second honeymoon,”
he says, noting that he’s on the lookout for titles in the game show, reality
and factual genres that are broadly about relationships. Top performers so far
have included Rich Bride, Poor Bride,
from Canada; eLove, also from
Canada, in which a courtship begins online before the prospective mates meet in
person; and, from the U.S., Race to the Altar.

Conneely has been thrilled with the response to the channel
so far, both from the core female 18 to 49 target demographic and from the
advertising community. Among those that have already come on board are Dove,
L’Oreal and 20th Century Fox for Notes on a Scandal.

Boosted by the British success, Wedding TV has now set its
sights on the international market, and launches are slated for Poland, Romania
and Russia in the coming weeks. “I want to [be successful] in those three
territories, and then we’ll branch out further,” Conneely says.

The independently owned service was founded by partners
Mirek Grabiec, the co-founder of Zone Vision (now Zonemedia), who is Wedding
TV’s COO; Ben Watts, ex-finance director at Zone Vision, who is the channel’s
CFO; and Tony Prince, the founder of Mixmag,
who is the program director. The company has lined up £20 million in financing
for the next three years, which will be used to finance the international
expansion, as well as new content initiatives, with original productions on the
planner for this year.