programming heads for Indiewire, I spoke with President and
General Manager of Sundance Channel, Sarah Barnett. Sundance Channel made noise earlier this year with
the premiere of Jane Campion's limited series Top of the Lake and the
six-episode first season of Rectify. Both received a great deal
of critical love, and while to date Sundance has not been in the practice of
releasing its ratings (something that will change as of Sept. 30 when they
transition to a more traditional ad-supported model), Rectify obviously
accomplished the necessary goals as it will be returning for a 10-episode
second season next year.
I was most interested in Barnett's thoughts about Sundance
Channel's identity, especially in relation to its name since it no longer has
any direct relationship to Robert Redford, the Sundance Film Festival nor the
Sundance Film Institute. The discussion also got me thinking about the larger
cable landscape and the overall idea of niche programming. In the 1990s as the
cable universe began expanding, almost every new channel served a very distinct
purpose and targeted very specific demos. Certainly, many cable channels
continue to do so. The various Scripps Networks (Food Network, DIY, HGTV) and
several of the Discovery channels (Animal Planet, Discovery Fit & Health,
Military Channel) are probably the best examples, but MTV is far from the only
network that seems to have strayed for from its original, narrower mission.
Examining a few of the names of a number of channels across
the cable landscape provides the simplest example at how many have rebranded in
an attempt to distance themselves from their original niche programming.
- AMC originally stood for "American Movie Classics," which is precisely what they showed – uncut, unedited movie classics. Then they lost a huge chunk of their library licensing to Turner Classic Movies and were forced to change course. Now, they're a leader in the new form of series television and they rarely get truly "classic" in their movie selection.
- TLC (owned by Discovery) was "The Learning
Channel," but I'm not sure what there is to learn from Toddlers and Tiaras or its even more popular offspring Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.
Their programming now focuses completely on manufactured "reality"
shows with an emphasis on fashion, weddings, pregnancy and family stories. - The History Channel never changed its name, and certainly
its first steps towards scripted programming (their first series Vikings,
which returns next year for a second season as well as the miniseries The
Bible and Hatfields & McCoys) seem to have tried to stay within a
historical focus. However, achieving the most success for the channel have been
shows such as Pawn Stars, Ax Men, American Pickers and Ice
Road Truckers. - A&E always lived by those initials but originally they
originally were shorthand for the "Arts & Entertainment Network."
Originally, it's programming resembled what one might find on PBS – some
British TV and performing arts specials – as well as reruns of some popular
primetime series. Eventually, the "arts" part of A&E diminished
significantly and its stable focused more on reality series like Dog
the Bounty Hunter and crime documentary shows like The First 48. Their
biggest hit now – and arguably the most successful show on all of television,
not just cable – is Duck Dynasty, a reality series about a family from Louisiana
that became millionaires due to their duck call for duck hunters. - The TV Guide Channel has little to do with TV Guide anymore,
and while E! Entertainment Television still contains an entertainment news
posture, its bread and butter comes from celebrity-focused reality shows,
especially those centering around the Khardashians,
And of course, there's IFC, which began its life as The
Independent Film Channel. When it launched in 1994, independent film – unedited
and uncut – was what they broadcast. By 1994, the indie film explosion was
reaching its peak. The Sundance Film Festival and many of the films and
filmmakers premiering there had received mainstream attention, especially among
college-aged audiences: Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape in
1989; Reginald Hudlin's House Party, Whit Stillman's Metropolitan
and Norman René's Longtime Companion in 1990; Richard Linklater's Slacker and Todd Haynes's
Poison
in 1991; and arguably the breakout
year of 1992 which featured Allison Anders's Gas, Food Lodging, Tom
DiCillo's Johnny Suede (starring a now-famous from Thelma & Louise Brad
Pitt), Neal Jimenez & Michael Sternberg's The Waterdance, and most notably,
Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.
Movie channels weren't showing these films, so a cable
channel made sense, and Rainbow Media tried to partner with Robert Redford and
his Sundance brand to create the Independent Film Channel. That deal didn't
happen, but Rainbow launched the channel on its own in 1994. Two years later,
Redford partnered with Showtime Networks, and the Sundance Film Channel was
born. At the time, both films seemed to struggle to create their own identity, but
as the years passed and independent film became more coopted by larger
corporate subsidiaries, IFC and Sundance began to show some differences. IFC
seemed to become more genre oriented, focusing on more alternative but still
popular trends, especially in terms of comedy, thriller and horror. Sundance,
meanwhile, seemed a little more artsy and politically focused, also featuring
more documentaries.
Distinguishing the two channels became even more important
in 2008 when suddenly the two competing networks found themselves under the
same corporate umbrella. Rainbow Media – which still owned the now rebranded
IFC as well as AMC, Fuse, WE, the MSG sports channels and the Voom collection
of HD channels – bought Sundance Channel from Showtime and Redford. In the
ensuing years, corporate structures have changed – Rainbow Media no longer
exists (neither does Voom) after the 2011 spin-off of AMC Networks – but IFC
and Sundance Channels remain corporate siblings (step-siblings? Or
half-siblings?), and I doubt anyone would confuse their programming missions.
Both channels continue to air a large number of independent films, but each
have also taken those initial distinctions in their programming focused that
seemed to naturally evolve and expand them greatly. Sure, neither looks to
attract the broad general audience of the broadcast network, and they each have
primary demos they target, but as Barnett alludes to in my interview with her
today, Sundance Channel (at least) is looking to swim in the same pool as HBO,
AMC, FX and BBC America.
IFC's series during the first half of the last decade still
maintained a very film-focused sensibility – such as the unscripted Film
School, and game show Ultimate Film Fanatic along with
scripted shows The Business and The Festival; but over the last
five-to-10 years, they've made a shift, with original shows like The Kids
in the Hall-wannabe sketch show The Whitest Kids U' Know and the
David Cross vehicle The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret. Now they seem
to have targeted the alt- comedy audience more than ever with shows like Portlandia,
Comedy
Bang! Bang! and Maron. They also continue to rely
heavily on genre-oriented and "classic" indie films.
Sundance Channel meanwhile also continues to broaden its
appeal while building off that similar foundation of a more serious and
dramatic scripted sensibility combined with unscripted programming with a
political bent or, as Bennett also refers to it our chat, an "idealism"
that complements the brand of its namesake. In the case of all these cable
channels, though, as they attempt to continue to experience some degree of
growth and development (necessities for any successful endeavor within the survival-of-the-fittest
framework of modern television) , it seems to me that even as they all maintain
some sort of focus on a narrower demographic than the major broadcasters, they all
realize the requirement of expanding beyond their initial niche programming
focus.
Out of Focus 