Digital boom in Spain
Par Comedy/ Nick bow follows Sony AXN, Fox Kids
The Paramount Comedy Channel will make its bow on the European continent March 1 when it launches on the country's leading digital platform, the Sogecable-owned CanalSatelite Digital (CSD).
PCC will be twinned with and share the same channel position as sister company Nickelodeon, which will beam a branded kids block during daytime hours. The two channels will be advertiser- and subscriber-supported.
PCC is also working out carriage arrangements with some of the newly franchised cable MSO's in Spain in order to boost the channel's penetration.
The digital bow of Paramount Comedy/Nickelodeon will follow hot on the heels of the debut Nov. 5 of Sony Pictures Entertainment's action-oriented channel AXN and the launch in December of a reversioned Spanish-lingo Fox Kids channel.
The Paramount Comedy Channel will rely on Par's library, other Hollywood studio product, British shows and locally produced programming.
The agreement between Par's Worldwide Pay TV Division and Nickelodeon to twin the two channels was unveiled Wednesday by Par's pay TV prexy Jack Waterman and Nickelodeon Intl. managing director Karen Flischel.
The deal in turn develops a pact reached in October 1997 between Waterman's division and Spanish film and TV conglom Sogecable, a joint venture of Canal Plus France and Spain's Prisa, to launch a Paramount Comedy Channel as part of a larger output deal for pay rights and pay-per-view rights to the studio's movies.
Par's decision to twin its Paramount Comedy Channel with Nickelodeon builds on the pair's upbeat performance in the same channel position in Britain. Launched in January 1997, Nick U.K. reaches 6.1 million TV households.
(Nickelodeon did, however, pull out of the German market earlier this year, citing high costs and a highly competitive local kids channel environment.)
The Paramount Channel has 5.5 million subscribers in the U.K. and its locally produced programming featuring new comic talent has rapidly achieved cult status in Britain. Sources say the channel, now in its third year, is already in the black.
"We are looking forward to introducing these two great brands to the growing Spanish multichannel marketplace," Waterman said, adding that the timing was now right for the Spanish ad market and satellite/cable viewership to take off.
Waterman told Daily Variety that PCC has already acquired a clutch of comedies from Spanish terrestrial stations -- an indication that those broadcasters will probably not compete with PCC by launching similar comic channels. As in the U.K., Waterman's division will be seeking out opportunities to produce and co-produce locally.
Local sources in Madrid suggest that the Paramount Comedy/Nickelodeon combo could well see success in Spain. Many of the country's young helmers and screenwriters show a remarkably dark comic bent. To date, however, there have been few outlets for alternative comedy on local free-to-air or pay TV nets. The kids' market. too. is not as highly competitive as in the U.K. and Germany.
