After spending almost one year developing more events for pay-per-view and
video-on-demand distribution, TVN Entertainment Corp. will launch a full-time
event channel of its own June 1.
"Event TV" will incorporate all sorts of genres for its schedule, some
familiar to PPV/VOD, many not, TVN officials said.
Set to go so far are live boxing specials from Home Box Office and Showtime
Event Television, as well as World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.-produced
wrestling. Other sport programs, music and comedy concerts are among the shows
projected for the channel when or soon after it launches.
The schedule will be arranged by blocks, running at the same time or daypart
each week.
Operators will be permitted to co-brand the channel and seek local
sponsorship for individual events or interstitials running between events.
"Our platform will allow us to attract the highest-profile events and deliver
them in the most compelling formats," TVN event programming senior vice
president Michael Klein said in a prepared statement. "We are also developing
several new programming concepts to fully exploit the benefits of on-demand
TV."
High-definition VOD presentations will be part of Event TV's lineup, Klein
added.
TVN already has a "Presents" unit working with a number of outside producers
and organizations on event development. Several music and non-ring-sports
programs generated by the unit ran over TVN's channels last summer and
fall.
