USA Cable Network’s Potpourri Programming Style Is Paying Off

The network’s schedule ranges from reruns of “Murder, She Wrote” and “Miami Vice” to original series such as “The Hitchhiker” and “The Ray Bradbury Theater.” There are world-premiere TV movies and such non-classic oldies as “Cave Girl” and “Horror of the Werewolf.” Children can find such cartoons as “She-Ra, Princess of Power” and “Magilla Gorilla,” while sports fans can find early-round action of such events as the U.S. Open tennis tournament and golf’s Masters Tournament.

While other cable networks have carved out niches for themselves by specializing in one area--ESPN in sports, CNN in news, MTV in music--USA has done just the opposite, providing a mix of programming that is almost as diverse as that on a typical independent TV station. Almost, because USA doesn’t do news.

The reason goes to the heart of USA’s programming philosophy.

“To do a really good job at news is expensive, and remember, we’re counter-programmers,” explains Kay Koplovitz, president of the USA Network. “We think that during the news block (of our rivals), we can do better with other program formats.”

Neither Koplovitz nor her cable network are anywhere as well known outside the television industry as, say, CBS and its Broadcast Group chief, Howard Stringer, or NBC and its top programmer, Brandon Tartikoff.

But her network, which has 215 employees and is jointly owned by Paramount and MCA, is one of cable’s biggies, having steadily, if quietly, grown since its birth in 1977 as the Madison Square Garden Network. Koplovitz, who has worked in the cable industry since 1968, came aboard in 1980 when the venture was renamed USA Network.

Sports-oriented ESPN remains the leader of the cable pack, reaching 57% of the nation’s 90.4 million TV homes. It is followed closely by Ted Turner’s all-news CNN and his Atlanta superstation, WTBS. Koplovitz’ a-little-bit-of-everything empire ranks fourth overall in the latest A.C. Nielsen report, just four percentage points behind ESPN in the number of homes served.

A Milwaukee native, Koplovitz, 44, briefly worked as a producer at WTMJ-TV after graduating from the University of Wisconsin. But she wanted to go into this then-new thing called cable--and on the management side, not production.

“I didn’t think I would get a good opportunity in broadcasting,” she said recently.

The old-boy, no-women network?

“Yes. I think it was quite apparent,” she said. “This was 18 years ago . . . and I thought I would have a better opportunity in an environment where things were changing.”

When she got a master’s degree at Michigan State, she recalled with a slight smile, her thesis concerned satellite technology and “the political ramifications of cross-cultural communications.”

When she wrote her thesis, she added, “I believed that the technology would prompt a change in (program) distribution. . . . For me, fortunately, it worked out perfectly.”

Koplovitz began last season by announcing a $250-million package of original series and 24 made-for-USA movies that would join its schedule. The TV movies have been aired on a monthly basis, but will be shown twice a month this fall, starting in October.

There will be more announcements in Los Angeles today, where she is scheduled to speak to visiting TV writers. One is that USA has bought rerun rights for “The Equalizer,” which CBS axed this spring after four seasons. It will air weekly beginning Sept. 11.

Koplovitz also will announce, sources say, another megabuck outlay--at least as much as this year’s program expenditure--for original series and another 24 made-for-USA movies for next year.

The premiere last April of USA’s first original movie, “The Forgotten,” was seen, by USA’s estimate,in nearly 1.8 million homes.

The ratings were more than twice what USA had previously gotten in that Wednesday night time slot, the network said--and the May and June TV films did even better.

Of course, in the week that “The Forgotten” aired, the lowest-rated show on one of the three major networks was seen in more than 4.1 million homes.

USA research vice president David Bender’s response to that fact is a cheerful admission: Yes, cable’s ratings aren’t as high as those of the networks. However, he contends, USA has better audience demographics--its viewers are more upscale and thus more attractive to advertisers.

Koplovitz thinks that “somewhere down the line in the mid-’90s, there’ll be more parity (with the networks) than we’ve ever seen” in ratings.

“I think we’re going in that direction,” she said. But she added an important qualifier: The parity, should USA come to it, won’t be in all or even most of the 22 hours of prime-time programming a week.

Rather, she said, “on the individual movie, series or project, we may be talking about the ability to compete head to head. The gap is closing faster than I thought (possible) in some regards.”

The current original-movie package includes three films based on espionage stories by best-selling author Frederick Forsyth (“Day of the Jackal”). The first, “Just Another Secret,” starring Beau Bridges as a CIA operative embroiled in an assassination plot, is scheduled to air in December.

All three films are co-production deals with Blair Entertainment, London Weekend Television and Taurus Films, a German company.