TWA Plans to Start Travel Network for Cable Television

Trans World Airlines said Tuesday that it plans to begin a travel news programming service designed for cable television that will offer travelogues and travel tips as well as sales pitches for travel-related goods and services.

TWA Chairman Carl C. Icahn told airline analysts here that the Travel Network, as the service will be called, will begin programming early next year.

“We are excited about this project,” Icahn said. “We may consider taking part of the . . . (subsidiary) public and, if the (TWA) shareholders are really good to us and supportive, we may split off part of it to them as a Christmas present.”

According to observers of the television industry, the idea of a travel network is unique. Peter T. McHugh, president of TWA Marketing Services, said during the meeting with analysts and in an interview later that the network expects to be able to sign up enough cable companies to reach between 4 million and 5 million homes at the outset and 10 million by the end of the first year. Cable companies will be offered the programming free of charge.

McHugh said the network will operate 24 hours a day and that travel-related items would be sold about 30% of the time on the network while the rest of the programming would provide information and entertainment. But all of the entertainment would be related to travel. “There won’t be any shows and dances,” he said.

He said: “In a given hour, you’d expect a show about London that described some of the places to go, followed by a description of different tours, what air fares are available, as well as special products that might be offered to travelers to help them in their travels.”

He added that TWA will produce some of the programs itself and that independent producers will supply the rest.

McHugh said the service will not be named the TWA Network because the airline wants to encourage its competitors to advertise on it. “This will not be a TWA propaganda network,” he said. Other travel-related companies, such as hotel chains and car rental firms, will also be sought as advertisers.

McHugh said the new subsidiary will purchase equipment this week to allow it to send television signals via satellite. He declined to say what TWA’s start-up costs will be or how much it expects to earn.

But television analysts predict that the airline will run into problems getting cable companies to carry its programming, even though there is no charge for it.

“There is tremendous competition for channel capacity. It is a tight industry,” said Larry Gerbrandt, a senior analyst with Paul Kagan Associates, a Carmel, Calif.-based media consulting firm.

The new TWA channel will be competing with other basic cable networks such as Cable News Network, home shopping services and pay services such as Home Box Office. Besides, he said, until a network has between 13 million and 15 million viewers, it will not be rated by A. C. Nielson & Co. and will have difficulty signing up advertisers. “If you don’t have a rating, Madison Avenue isn’t interested,” he said.