National Geographic Seeks New Horizons in Television

That familiar yellow-bordered magazine now has its own cable TV network.

The National Geographic Channel, officially launched last weekend and available in 10 million homes nationwide, will mix new programming with the National Geographic Society’s documentary archives. The society’s seven “explorers-in-residence,” including famed primatologist Jane Goodall and historian Stephen Ambrose, will also contribute reports.

A majority of the new network’s potential customers can see it because they subscribe to DirecTV’s satellite service.

But National Geographic Channel President Laureen Ong said the network has received commitments from a number of cable systems, including AT&T; Broadband and Adelphia Communications, which would boost its subscription base to 28 million over the next few years.

The network will initially be on 18 hours daily, from 9 a.m. to 3 a.m. Infomercials will take up the remaining time.

Among the 400 hours of programming to premiere this year on the network is its signature show, “National Geographic Today,” a weeknight program providing environmental and science news and hosted by Tom Foreman and Susan Roesgen.

The show will telecast live from a $12-million, glass-enclosed studio in Washington, D.C. Ong is hopeful that pedestrians will engage in some “Today” show-like shenanigans. “You don’t build a street-level, glass-enclosed studio and not want that to happen,” she said.

The studio also boasts an outdoor news ticker. Sunday’s scrolling headlines were well-suited for the National Geographic’s global- and science-minded readers: “Crews from Sea World rescue two manatees from freezing,” and “Over 10,000 monkeys have overrun areas near government buildings in New Delhi.”

Ong, former vice president and general manager at WTTG-TV, the Fox affiliate in Washington, said she hopes to create a “synergy” between the new network and the 113-year-old society.

“It’s going to be our job to carry forward the legacy of the brand, but in a different medium,” she said. “We look at the channel as enhancing a National Geographic member or reader’s experience with National Geographic. There is hardly a person that exists that does not have some memory, some connection to National Geographic.”

The channel is a partnership between National Geographic Television and Fox Cable Networks Group, which is part of the same family that brought viewers “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?”

Jeff Shell, president and CEO of Fox Cable Networks, acknowledged during a launch ceremony that the partnership between the two companies “sounds a bit weird,” but believes that Fox will play a role in helping the new channel compete against such established networks as the Discovery Channel.

“We are eager to combine the brand of National Geographic with [Fox’s] aggressiveness,” he said.