HBO GETS WHAT IT WANTS : CABLE EXECS TUNE IN TO NEW STRATEGY

Michael Fuchs, chairman and chief executive officer of the Home Box Office cable television network, shook his head when an eager journalist offered to trade him anything-- anything-- in his own video collection for Fuchs’ rare videotape of a PBS special with Woody Allen, produced but never aired.

“There isn’t anything I want that I can’t get,” Fuchs, who was in town last week for this summer’s National Cable Forum, explained with a small but self-satisfied smile during a dinner following a day of press conferences.

Fuch’s words might seem like an understatement to executives of another cable network, Showtime/The Movie Channel, because, for $5 million, HBO got what Showtime wanted: an exclusive five-year film package deal with Paramount Pictures beginning in 1988.

Executives of HBO and Showtime, as well as representatives of a number of other cable networks, were here last week to attend cable TV’s semi-annual press tour.

Fuchs pointed out in a news conference last week that Showtime had cut its own throat by insisting that such studio deals remain exclusive. HBO would be happy, he said, to allow Showtime to buy into the Paramount deal and thereby alleviate some of the expense.

Showtime’s executive vice president of programming, Fred Schneier, however, insisted that exclusivity is of utmost importance to Showtime viewers: “It is our destiny to be proprietary,” he said.

The squabble over Paramount and exclusivity rights was merely the most visible of many issues concerning the future of cable which surfaced during the four-day conference, which ended Friday. NBC’s three-day annual press tour here ends today, to be followed by PBS, ABC and CBS.

While movie exclusivity remains an issue for HBO and Showtime, executives of both networks, as well as many other cable representatives, pointed out that original programming, not theatrical movies, is the wave of the future in cable.

“I really feel that the network, at least in comparison to us, is much more parochial, a much more narrow, much more repetitious, not terribly adventurous,” Fuchs said.

Only the outspoken Fuchs was bold enough to say outright that cable could soon become a stronger force than network television; others were more cautious but optimistic.

Fuchs, as well as several Showtime executives, noted the declining popularity of theatrical films on cable due to the availability of those movies for rental on videocassette. “It’s why we’re putting more effort into things that don’t go on the VCR first--this (cable TV) will never become a grown-up business until you have your own proprietary programming,” Fuchs said.

Fuchs acknowledged that there is one other good reason for original programming, such as the ambitious HBO production “Mandela,” to air in the fall: it gets more press coverage than theatrical movies.

Along with made-for-cable movies, this year’s original cable programming efforts include a heavy dose of comedy (including Showtime’s new comedy series “Super Dave”); several new variety shows (including Lifetime’s “Way Off Broadway,” with comedienne Joyce Behar and a revival of vaudeville on Disney Channel); pop music and concert programming (“Showtime Coast to Coast,” a concert series from around the globe for HBO) and a plenty of talk about reviving live television and that which falls into the nebulous category of “reality programming.”

Glasnost also seems to have become something of a cable fad. HBO plans to document a Billy Joel concert in the Soviet Union to air in the fall; Showtime will television “The Rock ‘N Roll Summit,” an American-Soviet music event, in October; Cable News Network set up a two-way satellite conference from the Soviet Union to discuss their new program “Global Reports,” which will feature a compilation of news reports from around the world, including reports from the Soviets.

Participants in the National Cable Forum were sports network ESPN, HBO, CBN Cable Network; Lifetime; Turner Broadcasting System; Showtime/The Movie Channel; The Disney Channel; The Discovery Channel; The Nashville Network; Tempo Television Network; MTV Networks and Arts & Entertainment.