New Cable Channels Seek Room on the Tube : Television: Backers have high hopes for science-fiction, cartoon and game formats, but crowded systems might not have space for them.

After many false starts and broken promises, the much-touted Sci-Fi Channel appears ready to become fact this fall--the first major new cable TV network to launch in nearly two years.

The Sci-Fi Channel was the most prominent new program service on display at the recently concluded National Cable TV Assn. convention in Dallas. It was elbowing for attention among Ted Turner’s new Cartoon Network, two competing game show channels, a revamped Learning Channel and a proposed cable channel called ZTV that specializes in “contemporary Christian music.”

But the vast majority of cable TV subscribers will not be able to view either the Sci-Fi Channel or the Cartoon Network, the only two new networks committed to launch dates.

That’s because most cable systems do not have enough channel space to accommodate new program services. Cable operators have been hampered in upgrading their systems because of changes in banking laws that make it difficult to raise the money.

That situation appears to be easing, however.

“Banks are beginning to open up again,” said Marc Nathanson, chairman of Los Angeles-based Falcon Cable TV Systems. “They are making it easier to borrow money for capital expenditures to upgrade 35-channel systems. All these new networks are aware of that.”

The Sci-Fi Channel was conceived three years ago by entrepreneur Mitch Rubenstein, but he was unable to get it off the ground because of financing problems. In March, USA Network, which is jointly owned by Paramount Pictures and MCA Inc., bought the struggling proposed network and took over management.

With the considerable financial and marketing clout of USA--the third-largest cable network--behind it, the Sci-Fi Channel is now set to launch Sept. 24 in about 10 million cable TV households.

Although some cable industry operators have voiced concern that the Sci-Fi Channel would appeal only to science-fiction buffs, its backers are confident it will have a much wider audience.

“It’s a niche network that is designed to appeal to 12- to 34-year-olds,” said Tim Brooks, USA Network’s research chief.

Brooks and his staff have conducted three surveys and believe, like proponents of extraterrestrial life, that the audience for the Sci-Fi Channel exists out there.

“The ‘Star Wars’ trilogy and ‘Star Trek’ revival in the 1980s made the general public interested in science fiction,” Brooks said. “This channel is a slam dunk.”

Already the channel has acquired about 500 hours of programming--at least 65% of what it will need for the foreseeable future, said Neil Hoffman, vice president of programming for USA Network. The programming--much of it supplied by corporate parents Paramount and MCA--includes old network shows like “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Incredible Hulk” and “The Bionic Woman.”

Hoffman said the programming will not be limited to science-fiction-type shows but will embrace the whole genre of sci-fi, fantasy and horror entertainment. The Sci-Fi Channel also wants to schedule nonfiction shows on such topics as space exploration and astro science, he added.

Six months after it bought cartoon studio Hanna-Barbera Productions for $320 million, Turner Broadcasting System said it will be launching the Cartoon Network on Oct. 1.

The channel will be programmed with cartoons from the Hanna-Barbera library, old MGM cartoons such as “Tom and Jerry” and pre-1950 Warner Bros. cartoons that Turner acquired when it bought the MGM film library in 1986.

“We are positioning it not only for kids,” says Betty Cohen, executive vice president of the Cartoon Channel. “Looking at the demographics of cartoons across all cable, kids make up 47% of the audience and adults 45%. The rest are teen-agers.”

The Cartoon Network will not produce any original programming for about three years, however, “until we reach a critical mass in distribution.”

Indeed, Cohen acknowledges that the problem of channel capacity is making the launch much more difficult than that of TNT three years ago.

“There are channel space issues, regulatory issues,” she said. “Rates might be re-regulated. So operators are looking very hard at new services that might require them to charge more. Despite that, a lot of operators are also rebuilding their systems and adding channels.”

It seemed just a matter of time before someone would come up with the idea of launching a game show network, given that cable TV has a long history of inflating a single program format--news, comedy, cartoons--into a 24-hour channel.

There are actually two separate proposals for game show channels being pitched to cable operators. The Family Channel, which is controlled by evangelist Pat Robertson, hopes to launch next year what it calls the Game Channel.

But if the Game Channel hopes to get off the ground, it must do so against a formidable joint venture made up of Sony Pictures Entertainment and United Video Group, which announced last week that it will launch next year what it similarly calls the Game Show Channel.

Both proposed services boast that they will use interactive video technology that would allow viewers at home to play along in some fashion. Many cable operators believe that interactive TV is on the threshold of becoming a reality after many years of development.

To draw attention to its booth at the Dallas convention, the Game Channel hired Rod Roddy and Wink Martindale--the Dan Rather and Peter Jennings of game show hosts--to emcee “Face Off” with convention delegates on a mock-up set.

The Game Channel is a joint venture between the Family Channel and Game Technologies Inc., a Hollywood-based interactive video company founded by Steve Soffer. He maintains that the interactive element, particularly during “play breaks” between shows, is a key draw.

The prospect of two rival game show channels fighting it out for scarce channel space is enough to make cable TV operators’ eyes roll. They remember the costly and time-consuming battles that raged when competing comedy and courtroom channels tried to launch a couple of years ago. In the end, the competitors in each case merged into a single channel.

No less difficult than starting a new cable TV channel is revamping an existing one, as the Discovery Channel is doing with its recent acquisition of the Learning Channel.

“To start a network today would cost at least $50 million,” said John Hendricks, chief executive of Discovery Communications Inc., parent company of the Learning Channel. “What we bought was a distribution network already in place.”

When the Discovery Channel, known for its quality nature and documentary programs, bought the Learning Channel last year for $32 million, the struggling network was available in only 14.8 million homes, many of them only part time. Today TLC reaches 17 million homes.