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1:00 am, June 2, 2008
Scary programme pair launch TV channel
By Joanne Birtwistle
The Manchester-based makers of scary television shows including Most Haunted are launching a new television channel aimed at fans of the supernatural. The Paranormal Channel, run by husband and wife Yvette Fielding and Karl Beattie (pictured) through their Reddish-based Monster Pictures, will begin broadcasting as a free-to-view channel on Sky next Monday.
Beattie has dubbed the 24-hour channel “a light look at the dark side” as it will show comedies as well as drama and documentaries.
Fielding and Beattie's production company Antix has been making Most Haunted, shown on Living TV and also presented by Fielding, for more than eight years. It was the popularity of this show and Ghost Hunting With, which Antix produces for ITV2, that led the pair to set up Monster Pictures and the Paranormal Channel. Antix will continue to produce these shows for Living and ITV2 and will not be showing repeats on The Paranormal Channel for licensing reasons.
The couple are investing £1.1m of their own money in getting the channel off the ground, including over £300,000 on annual satellite costs. Additional programme costs will be kept down as much original content will come from Antix and their post-production company Television Broadcast Services.
In the next couple of months all three companies will move to new premises in Salford, close to MediaCity, which include two studios and space for editing facilities.
Beattie said he expects Monster Pictures to be profitable after its first year, with a turnover of around £2m up to June 2009, rising to £5m in the second year.
Original programming will include Whines and Spirits — a search for Britain's most haunted pub; Three Screaming Banshees, which will follow Fielding, Cath Howe and Lesley Smith as they chase paranormal activity up and down the country in a camper van; and scary bedtime reading by Paul Ross.
Monster has also gained the UK rights to show Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World series, first shown in 1980.
The channel is in sponsorship talks with products as diverse as a cosmetics, alcohol and toilet paper. Adrian Richmond, head of business development at television airtime sales company Dolphin Television, which will be selling the Paranormal Channel's advertising, said sponsorship opportunities could range from £5,000 to up to £250,000. “It depends on whether companies sponsor individual programmes, days, seasons or special weeks,” he said. “The channel is targeting everyone, taking a broad approach. It's not niche.”
Sources of revenue
Apart from ads and sponsors, other revenue will come from viewer texts and phone calls, although there will be no telephony services for the first three months of broadcast. “I know they are controversial at the moment but as long as we are honest, we'll have nothing to worry about,” said Beattie.
Beattie estimates viewing figures of around 50,000 per show at first, adding that it will take people time to find the channel. “Everybody says you need a target audience but this really does fit everyone,” he said, adding that Living TV's target audience is 16 to 44 year old females, although viewing data actually shows the male/female split to be close to 50/50 for Most Haunted.
Alison Wright, broadcast director at MediaVest, reckons that estimate is optimistic. “Dolphin's True Movies channel currently attracts in the region of 37,000 viewers for the best performing films. Most Haunted, which is shown on Living, delivers 144,000 viewers, but the channel is at least four times the size of a Dolphin channel,” she said.
“Their success will certainly depend on the quality of the new content, and how quickly this can be aired. The downside may be that interest in the paranormal peaked last year, at the height of Most Haunted viewing.”
Mark Watts, broadcast team account manager at media agency Mediacom North, said that since Most Haunted and Ghost Hunting With already do well and are recognised, the channel would pick up viewers from people flicking channels. “If people stumble across a programme it doesn't matter what channel it's on, but the ratings won't be as big as similar programmes on Living TV and ITV2,” he said.
He added that the channel's position in the Sky electronic programme guide — still to be assigned by Sky but expected to be in the entertainment section — is all-important. “If the channel is close to Living, for example, people will be flicking around the vicinity of that station. But if it's somewhere at the back with lesser known stations, there is less chance that will happen.”
The company hopes to add the channel to cable and Freeview digital after six months of broadcasting on Sky.
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