Sony and United Video to Launch a Cable-TV Game Show Channel

Sony Pictures Entertainment and United Video Group will announce plans today to launch a cable TV channel next year that will feature wall-to-wall game shows.

The Game Show Channel will join a growing list of proposed networks jostling for scarce channel space on local cable TV systems.

Among new cable TV networks on tap are a cartoon channel from cable mogul Ted Turner and the Sci-Fi Channel, a joint venture of Paramount Pictures and MCA.

Columbia and United Video think that, after several years of dormancy, cable operators are on the threshold of greatly expanding channel capacity due to technological developments such as video compression and fiber-optics. Such developments could make hundreds of channels available for the typical cable TV subscriber.

United Video, which distributes superstation WGN-TV and the Prevue Channel to local cable systems, will provide marketing and technological support to the venture. Sony’s Columbia Pictures TV unit, which owns game show producer Merv Griffin Enterprises (“Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy!”), will design the programming.

The partners hope to take advantage of upcoming developments in so-called interactive television that would allow TV viewers to participate in some fashion with the game show being telecast.

“I see a real advantage with interactivity and regionalized game events,” said Mel Harris, president of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s television group. “With our program library, and ability to create new shows, it will be a good extension of our asset.”

United Video has been developing the concept of a game show channel for nearly two years. The company has also been active in developing sophisticated cable system technology as a result of its Prevue Channel, which is an on-screen program guide for local operators.

Harris would not comment about how much Sony would invest in the venture. Nonetheless, start-ups of new cable TV networks can be costly. It is estimated that the Sci-fi Channel, for example, cost more than $50 million to get off the ground.

Game shows have been one of the most enduring formats in television. Their low production costs and high ratings can make them financial gold mines for producers.

But in recent years the networks have been airing fewer of them during morning time periods in favor of prime-time reruns, and syndicators have opted to market talk shows because of the overwhelming strength of “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy.”