Maybe we should we try for distributution via VOD (video on demand)?
Excerpt below from article yesterday at
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/07/busin ... &position=
(requires site registration)
June 7, 2004
To Watch These Programs on Cable, You Have to Find Them First
By KEN BELSON
Watching a gearhead assemble a motorcycle in 13 one-hour installments might not be most people's idea of riveting television, but to Keith Dressel it is a programming niche that is begging to be exploited.
In the increasingly cluttered world of cable television, Mr. Dressel is convinced that there is still plenty of space for his fledgling network, AMP TV. Under the banner "Life Fully Charged," his network is aiming at 18- to 34-year-old men who like hard-driving music, muscle cars and extreme sports. A kind of MTV-meets-Speedvision-meets-ESPN2, his publicist says.
"There's nothing out there that fashions this stuff in this way," said Mr. Dressel, a former music company executive who likes fast boats, body surfing and riding horses "as fast as they'll go." Mr. Dressel is aiming for that sweet spot of young male viewers, a market that advertisers prize. A few years ago, cable operators would have fallen over themselves to sign AMP TV. But the prime analog channels on cable are long gone, and Mr. Dressel is negotiating to get on cable's digital band, which has been considered less desirable because viewers have to pay extra for access to digital channels.
While Mr. Dressel is confident he can land a digital channel, other new networks may not be so lucky. Instead, they are being cajoled, or pushed, by cable companies to place their programs exclusively onto cable's new frontier - video on demand...
Chicago is my spiritual chow home