WNET stakes out time for local arts programs on a cable channel
Originally published in Current, July 6, 1998
By Steve Behrens
WNET is pushing deeper into alliance with the arts world of the New York City area by packaging a six-hour evening block of largely local arts programming on a new regional cable channel.
Starting Aug. 5, MetroArts/Thirteen will be a noncommercial oasis on one of three new regional "MSG Metro" channels announced last week by Rainbow Media Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of the metro area's dominant cable operator, Cablevision Systems Corp.
Programming taped by arts groups will be the major component, tied together with hosted breaks taped on location at arts venues, according to Michael Fields, executive producer in charge of the project. WNET arts programs, including Great Performances, American Masters and City Arts will be excerpted as appropriate for the day's themes.
"If we're doing an opening on Broadway and our host is at Shubert Alley that evening, interviewing cast members during breaks, capturing the excitement of the theater district," says Fields, "we may show a Charlie Rose interview with Neil Simon from several years ago, or Great Performances on the creation of Ragtime, or a lecture from the 'Lyrics & Lyricists' series at the 92nd Street Y."
"This is one of the most significant ventures I think any public television station has ever contemplated," says Fields, excited beyond containment after a press briefing July 1. "This gets us into the laboratory for the digital era."
WNET has video agreements with 42 cultural groups in New York and the suburbs, including the Julliard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and is adding more, according to Fields. Though Fields' staff will coach video crews, he has been happily surprised to find a high level of professionalism in videotapes already being made.
Joan Hershey, a Great Performances producer, will be line producer for the project, while Fields is executive producer with other local programming projects to oversee. Fields, a onetime Westinghouse Broadcasting colleague of WNET President Bill Baker, joined WNET last fall to develop the project, which grew out of Baker's conversations with Cablevision Chairman Chuck Dolan.
Baker has pointed out that arts programming is one area where public TV retains a strong leadership position, with limited competition.
The arts block--actually a two-hour package that airs three times between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. every night--will operate on a limited budget, with support from underwriting. Rainbow will pay WNET only the cost of transmitting its programming by fiber-optic cable to a cable operations center in Manhattan, according to Fields. With a staff of six, costs will be "reasonable," and are "not an issue," he said.
Fields has experience with lean production budgets. Until two years ago he was station manager of WQED's sister station, WQEX, which made more local programming than all the city's other stations combined, he says.
Metroarts/Thirteen will appear on the MSG Metro Guide channel, a regional entertainment guide localized during other hours with "MetroPicks" calendar blurbs for 27 subregions of the area.
Rainbow's two other new channels are MSG Metro Learning Center, which will offer educational programming for high-school students in the daytime and adults at night, and MSG Metro Traffic & Weather, featuring views from 60 traffic cameras. WNET is talking with Rainbow about a role in the Learning Center channel, according to Fields.
"MSG" refers to Madison Square Garden, the huge Manhattan arena that is also a longtime program provider to cable, and is owned (along with the New York Nicks and Rangers) in major part by Rainbow.
Cablevision and Rainbow have been pioneers in regional cable programming, both in sports channels and in starting the first 24-hour local news channel, on Long Island. Rainbow, a subsidiary of Cablevision and NBC, also operates Bravo, American Movie Classics and the Independent Film Channel.
The MSG Metro channels initially will appear only on Cablevision's local cable systems, but the company is negotiating with Time Warner (which serves Manhattan) and other major operators in the region.
Outside link: Web site of Cablevision Systems Corp. and its pioneering 24-hour local cable news operation.
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