Islandgirl
Well-Known Member
From the Globe and Mail
Angling for an even bigger audience
SUSAN KRASHINSKY
17:56 EST Tuesday, Dec 28, 2010
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In the world of televised fishing, puns are something of an occupational hazard.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the programming lineup of the World Fishing Network. The specialty channel’s marquee shows include Reel Fishy Jobs; Hookin’ Up With Mariko Izumi; and an informative show about products and techniques entitled – wait for it – Getting School’d.
Despite all the cutesy piscatorial wordplay, TV angling has an audience. And across North America, much of that audience is consuming a Canadian product. The World Fishing Network (WFN), owned by Toronto-based Insight Sports Ltd., has roughly four million paid subscriber households in the U.S., a number it expects to double in 2011.
Canadian TV exports are certainly not unusual. The Global television network’s cop drama Rookie Blue was picked up by U.S. network ABC. Nelvana, the production arm of Corus Entertainment Inc., is a major player in children’s programming; its classic animated series Babar, for example, is broadcast in 163 countries. But while Canadian programs are bought by channels around the world, WFN is the only Canadian-owned TV network to be distributed outside Canadian borders.
Partly, that’s because so much of the TV dial is made up of imported shows and concepts: Food Network Canada for example, could hardly compete in the U.S. since it takes its branding and some of its programs from the original American network. The same goes for specialty channels such as HGTV Canada and The Discovery Channel.
And in the pantheon of sports channels, most content already exists: whether it’s a behemoth like ESPN or niche offerings such as The Golf Channel, NBA TV, or GOL TV. One niche that wasn’t served? Fishing.
“We had fishing available … there are shows on ESPN, ESPN2, Outdoor Channel, The Sportsman Channel. We just didn’t have a destination channel for the consumer,” said Carolyn Crawford, the vice-president of programming at Dish Network, the second U.S. carrier to pick up WFN after it made its debut on Verizon’s FiOS TV in 2007. Out of as many as 50 channels pitched to Verizon on a monthly basis, Ms. Crawford said the service accepts “less than a handful” each year.
Since 2007, the channel has landed on TV screens for customers of DirecTV, Comcast, Charter Communications, and a number of small regional carriers.
WFN can be broadcast so broadly because, unlike most sports networks, it does not have to compete for pricey game broadcast rights that are often limited to one country or even just one region.
“Who’s going to get Monday Night Football, etc., that’s a battle where, as it continues, it drives rights prices up and margins shrink. … Not clawing with our competitors over rights, is a huge advantage to our business,” said John Brunton, the chairman of Insight Sports.
Most of WFN’s programming is focused on shows about people getting out on the water, not on competitions. That strategy has allowed it to take advantage of some of the more cost-effective trends of reality television – including the kind of product placement that makes for significantly reduced production budgets.
For The Lodge, a look behind the scenes of an upscale fishing lodge in Haida Gwaii, B.C., the Queen Charlotte Lodge covered accommodations for the crew, and use of the facilities (and of its helicopter for pricey aerial shots) in exchange for North-America-wide TV exposure.
“That really helps the costs,” said Gary Cooper, the Victoria, B.C.-based producer who conceived of the series with the lodge’s management and approached WFN with the idea. He estimated the lodge’s contributions cut $50,000 to $100,000 from the costs of producing a 13-episode season. The second season starts in the new year.
The series also gave WFN a loyal advertiser: The Queen Charlotte Lodge pays for TV ads during the show, and on the WFN website.
“The big cash layout for us is advertising on the channel,” said Duane Foerter, the lodge’s marketing manager. “We were pleasantly surprised in the summertime … at the number of people who came to the lodge and said they were visiting because they’d seen it on the show.”
The network is looking to court more advertisers in the fishing niche to bolster revenue. In its five years so far, the Canadian side of WFN’s business has yet to turn a profit, according to numbers submitted to the federal broadcast regulator. As a private company, Insight would not disclose whether the American side of the business makes up for the shortfall, but forecasts the overall business to be profitable next year.
Part of the advertising sales effort is a relaunch of its website: It now includes gear reviews that landed WFN a deal with Amazon.com for one-click buying from the site, and it’s looking for more retail partners. WFN has also built a searchable online map – like Google Maps for fishing, with lodges, boat rental facilities and equipment shops. It’s hoping to take the model of Yellow Pages’ business on the Web to a niche fishing audience; up-selling small shops to enhance their listings on that map and even building small websites to link to their ads.
“When you get down to narrower passions, there’s big opportunity there,” said Mark Rubinstein, the president and CEO of Insight Sports. “… Never underestimate someone’s passion, or their ability to spend behind their passion.”
WFN is also about to launch apps for iPad and iPhone – one free and ad-supported, and another for $2.99 that works as a fishing log for anglers to organize their notes on catches, photos and travel experiences – all in a bid to capitalize on a larger-than-usual audience for a Canadian specialty channel, in a highly targeted demographic.
“We have a brand that has credibility, and we’ve got an existing audience. If we don’t get this right, throw me off the roof of the building,” Mr. Rubinstein laughed. “All the dynamics are there.”
Angling for an even bigger audience
SUSAN KRASHINSKY
17:56 EST Tuesday, Dec 28, 2010
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the world of televised fishing, puns are something of an occupational hazard.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the programming lineup of the World Fishing Network. The specialty channel’s marquee shows include Reel Fishy Jobs; Hookin’ Up With Mariko Izumi; and an informative show about products and techniques entitled – wait for it – Getting School’d.
Despite all the cutesy piscatorial wordplay, TV angling has an audience. And across North America, much of that audience is consuming a Canadian product. The World Fishing Network (WFN), owned by Toronto-based Insight Sports Ltd., has roughly four million paid subscriber households in the U.S., a number it expects to double in 2011.
Canadian TV exports are certainly not unusual. The Global television network’s cop drama Rookie Blue was picked up by U.S. network ABC. Nelvana, the production arm of Corus Entertainment Inc., is a major player in children’s programming; its classic animated series Babar, for example, is broadcast in 163 countries. But while Canadian programs are bought by channels around the world, WFN is the only Canadian-owned TV network to be distributed outside Canadian borders.
Partly, that’s because so much of the TV dial is made up of imported shows and concepts: Food Network Canada for example, could hardly compete in the U.S. since it takes its branding and some of its programs from the original American network. The same goes for specialty channels such as HGTV Canada and The Discovery Channel.
And in the pantheon of sports channels, most content already exists: whether it’s a behemoth like ESPN or niche offerings such as The Golf Channel, NBA TV, or GOL TV. One niche that wasn’t served? Fishing.
“We had fishing available … there are shows on ESPN, ESPN2, Outdoor Channel, The Sportsman Channel. We just didn’t have a destination channel for the consumer,” said Carolyn Crawford, the vice-president of programming at Dish Network, the second U.S. carrier to pick up WFN after it made its debut on Verizon’s FiOS TV in 2007. Out of as many as 50 channels pitched to Verizon on a monthly basis, Ms. Crawford said the service accepts “less than a handful” each year.
Since 2007, the channel has landed on TV screens for customers of DirecTV, Comcast, Charter Communications, and a number of small regional carriers.
WFN can be broadcast so broadly because, unlike most sports networks, it does not have to compete for pricey game broadcast rights that are often limited to one country or even just one region.
“Who’s going to get Monday Night Football, etc., that’s a battle where, as it continues, it drives rights prices up and margins shrink. … Not clawing with our competitors over rights, is a huge advantage to our business,” said John Brunton, the chairman of Insight Sports.
Most of WFN’s programming is focused on shows about people getting out on the water, not on competitions. That strategy has allowed it to take advantage of some of the more cost-effective trends of reality television – including the kind of product placement that makes for significantly reduced production budgets.
For The Lodge, a look behind the scenes of an upscale fishing lodge in Haida Gwaii, B.C., the Queen Charlotte Lodge covered accommodations for the crew, and use of the facilities (and of its helicopter for pricey aerial shots) in exchange for North-America-wide TV exposure.
“That really helps the costs,” said Gary Cooper, the Victoria, B.C.-based producer who conceived of the series with the lodge’s management and approached WFN with the idea. He estimated the lodge’s contributions cut $50,000 to $100,000 from the costs of producing a 13-episode season. The second season starts in the new year.
The series also gave WFN a loyal advertiser: The Queen Charlotte Lodge pays for TV ads during the show, and on the WFN website.
“The big cash layout for us is advertising on the channel,” said Duane Foerter, the lodge’s marketing manager. “We were pleasantly surprised in the summertime … at the number of people who came to the lodge and said they were visiting because they’d seen it on the show.”
The network is looking to court more advertisers in the fishing niche to bolster revenue. In its five years so far, the Canadian side of WFN’s business has yet to turn a profit, according to numbers submitted to the federal broadcast regulator. As a private company, Insight would not disclose whether the American side of the business makes up for the shortfall, but forecasts the overall business to be profitable next year.
Part of the advertising sales effort is a relaunch of its website: It now includes gear reviews that landed WFN a deal with Amazon.com for one-click buying from the site, and it’s looking for more retail partners. WFN has also built a searchable online map – like Google Maps for fishing, with lodges, boat rental facilities and equipment shops. It’s hoping to take the model of Yellow Pages’ business on the Web to a niche fishing audience; up-selling small shops to enhance their listings on that map and even building small websites to link to their ads.
“When you get down to narrower passions, there’s big opportunity there,” said Mark Rubinstein, the president and CEO of Insight Sports. “… Never underestimate someone’s passion, or their ability to spend behind their passion.”
WFN is also about to launch apps for iPad and iPhone – one free and ad-supported, and another for $2.99 that works as a fishing log for anglers to organize their notes on catches, photos and travel experiences – all in a bid to capitalize on a larger-than-usual audience for a Canadian specialty channel, in a highly targeted demographic.
“We have a brand that has credibility, and we’ve got an existing audience. If we don’t get this right, throw me off the roof of the building,” Mr. Rubinstein laughed. “All the dynamics are there.”
(it is Christmas) will be involved in the show somehow so I'm certain he'll get'er in there....
