Social Feed

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/local-tv/diginets-future-may-just-be-now/137823

The story stemming from NATPE last month wasn't the latest celeb trying their hand at daytime TV, but a rapidly growing batch of upstart junior networks showing vintage TV series, black & white film classics and an endless litany of game shows. Call them subchannels or diginets, multicasts or dot-twos—the fledgling networks corralled a hefty portion of the Miami buzz in the wake of several launch announcements and the escalated presence of other channels with a few years' head start.

"So many stations were behind on diginets," says Sean Compton, president of strategic programming and acquisitions at Tribune Media. "They said there wasn't money to be made, or they thought it would compromise their primary signal."

That's not the case anymore. While Tribune's Antenna TV and This TV, as well as Weigel Broadcasting's Me-TV, NBC's Cozi TV and Katz Broadcasting's Bounce TV, have had a healthy head start in the race to sign up affiliates and nail down sticky programming, the arena is getting a whole lot more crowded. Sony Pictures Television's vintage films net getTV turned a year old last week, while Movies!, a venture between Weigel and Fox, turns 2 later this year. Decades, a classic TV network from Weigel and CBS Television Stations, has soft launched, with a proper debut due for Memorial Day. Weigel is also behind the crime channel Heroes & Icons, which will compete for affiliates and viewers with other rookies such as Katz net LAFF, MGM's The Works, FremantleMedia North America's game show net Buzzr and the crime-fighting channel Justice Network.

The diginets, once the baby of the television industry, are on their feet and walking. "Now there's variety—comedy, game shows, dramas," says Michael Kokernak, president of the multicast consultancy Across Platforms. "We finally see a range of content, and that's what the industry needed to do."

Pay to Play

According to Kokernak, 60 individual subchannels were launched on full power stations in the second quarter of 2014, climbing to 101 in the third quarter and skyrocketing to 155 in the fourth. The first quarter's launches continue the trend of a massive affiliate grab by the multicasts. Networks can go about that in different ways, essentially leasing time on a station's subchannel, similar to how networks paid affiliates compensation years ago; or lining up a more partner-minded revenue share with the broadcaster. Networks such as Antenna and Cozi can avoid the paid model because they are launched by station groups; others, such as getTV and Katz Broadcasting's Escape and Grit, pay for carriage.

The paid model, which might see a network shell out $5,000-$15,000 monthly to air on a major-market subchannel, may be more prevalent than network operators let on. "Everyone wants it for free, but if it's a market they want, they will pay," says Kokernak.

Lived Well

Live Well Network was a compelling case study in multicast originals, airing a creative slate but failing to find enough viewers to make the ABC owned stations' initiative viable. Competitors would not comment on Live Well's demise on the record. Privately, they say the programming was not unique enough to stand out from like-minded cable nets, and successfully marketing originals requires a very dominant line on the budget.

Time will tell how many diginets will still be plugging away down the road. After all, .2 Network never launched, and CoolTV and Retro TV have seen precipitous slides in affiliations. "I don't know if there are too many," says Tribune's Compton. "They said that about cable 10-15 years ago, and cable is still adding channels."