Charter/Spectrum Enters a Scripted Series VOD Era

Street detective buddy drama L.A.'s Finest, with Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba involved as both co-stars and co-executive producers, marks the opening volley of Spectrum Originals.  The first three episodes arrived on VOD May 13, with two more episodes scheduled to premiere each week through June 17.  Spectrum subscribers can see the episodes free of charge -- and commercial-free -- on VOD.  Each Spectrum Originals series will get a nine-month VOD run, after which the program supplier, Sony Pictures TV in this case, can offer the program any way it wants, domestically or internationally.

Three more Originals series will debut during 2019, starting with Curfew, a street racing drama that Katherine Pope (pictured at top), Spectrum Originals' Senior Vice President and Head of Original Content, labels "a love letter to genre TV."  Curfew will premiere this summer, followed by another series (to be announced in a few weeks) in early fall and the reboot of Mad About You (with Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt back in their co-starring roles) from Sony in December.  At least two new series will kick in the first half of 2020, one being Manhunt, Lionsgate's revival of the miniseries anthology concept that resulted in an acclaimed docudrama about the search for the Unabomber on Discovery Channel two years ago. Despite solid ratings and critical praise, Discovery turned down additional Manhunt miniseries when the network abandoned its plans for more scripted TV.

Pope classifies Spectrum Originals as both a new value proposition to Charter's customers and a natural progression from local news and public affairs channels the company operates in New York City and other locations nationwide.  "This is a logical extension of that," she says.  "We want to give subscribers a selection of premium TV series they can see exclusively.  I'm trying to make a curated group of shows for specific and discreet demographics.  [We're] looking for what's underrepresented [on TV] so [we] can make a stronger connection between groups who feel their stories aren't being told."

In L.A.'s Finest, what's underrepresented is a matter of overriding storyline -- policewomen paired up and in action solving crimes, a la Cagney & Lacey or Rizzoli & Isles -- and women of color leading on and off-camera.  "The program is more about the characters and the friendship [they have], and a little less about solving the crime of the week," Pope explains.  "Easy-peasy where I'm concerned."

Why run Originals through advertiser-free VOD?  "When you look to give subscribers a value-add, you're looking to give them something they don't have," Pope notes.  "We made the decision to make this experience as easy, user-friendly and premium as possible.  The goal going in was just to make this as easy to view on the subscriber's terms; let this be something they drive.  In a way, we're rewarding our subscribers for being our subscribers."

A cross-channel message campaign on Spectrum Originals and L.A.'s Finest launched late April, supplemented by direct mail, a feature story in Spectrum's VOD program guide and a mix of videos (trailers, behind-the-scenes footage, etc.) playing on Charter's website.  Charter and Sony also held a public event featuring the cast and crew in Los Angeles the weekend before launch.

From here, Originals will premiere series from outside production companies greenlighted by Charter or co-productions between the company and cable programmers or studios.  Before Pope, a former NBC Universal Programming Executive, arrived to oversee Spectrum Originals, Charter formulated co-production agreements with Viacom and AMC Networks.  After the VOD window, Viacom and AMC can play the co-production on any of their channels.

Viacom is finalizing plans to co-produce one series whose post-VOD existence will be on Paramount Network and close to going forward with another program for later play on BET.  As for AMC, Pope says their first co-production is some time off.  Viacom and AMC, along with Lionsgate, have a group of scripted concepts in development.

"We're not out to be Walmart or Netflix in terms of putting out a large volume [of original series]," Pope says.  "We haven't done this before.  We'll put these shows out one at a time and see what we get back.  This is a learning curve."

As Spectrum Originals gets that curve down, Pope believes Charter can make an important contribution to the range and quality of scripted content. "We have to continue to expand our definition of what TV is," she says.  "Do I see [interactive TV] for us down the road?  I hope so."

Editor's note:  "L.A.'s Finest" executive producers Brandon Margolis and Brandon Sonnier were recently guests on Simon Applebaum's Tomorrow Will Be Televised Internet-distributed radio program/podcast.  That episode is available at here, iTunes, Apple TV or Spreaker's podcast application, and iHeartRadio.

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