Epix to bow as on-demand, channel
Venture backed by Viacom, Lionsgate, MGM
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Mark Greenberg, prexy of the joint venture dubbed Studio 3 Networks, talked up the channel Tuesday during the NATPE confab, but conspicuously the channel has yet to confirm any carriage agreements with cable or satellite operators.
Greenberg said the partners were in active discussions with major distrib partners. Epix is being shopped to operators by the MTV Networks affiliate relations team, Greenberg said.
Epix will have the pay TV window on all Par and Paramount Vantage titles released after Jan. 1, 2008, and all MGM and UA and Lionsgate pics released after the start of this year. Greenberg, a 17-year Showtime veteran, indicated that the partners’ desire that Epix have an on-demand broadband component was complicating carriage talks.
The plan is for the broadband service to be available in May to cable and satellite operators that cut deals with the channel. Greenberg emphasized that the on-demand component was key to making Epix popular with consumers, who want easy 24/7 access to programming. Epix will have the flexibility to make its pics available on various media platforms because the channel’s owners control all of those rights.
Pics available to Epix at launch include “Iron Man,” “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Pink Panther 2.” Greenberg said the channel will be able to dip into the archives of its partners and carry such titles as UA’s James Bond series.
Epix also intends to have at least one pilot for an original series ready to go within a few months of its October launch. By 2010 the hope is to have two or three original skeins, as well as comedy and concert specials and other live-event programming, Greenberg said.
