Cable TV’s search for identity

A few years ago, it looked like Court TV was all about courtrooms, FX Network was for tough guys, and AMC ran only movies. In the coming months, however, cable TV viewers will start to see things change.

Court TV will become TruTV. FX ads will explain “There is no box” its shows fit into. And AMC will launch its third original scripted program.

As cable TV has exploded into hundreds of channels with countless programs, networks must grow increasingly sophisticated to stand out amid the competition, develop an identity and maintain their double-digit annual growth. Some, such as Court TV, have relied as much on psychographics as demographics to figure out who their audience is and how to reach potential viewers. FX spent tens of millions of dollars to roll out its ad campaign for the new tag line.

The idea, said John Landgraf, president and general manager of FX Networks, is to create a “sense of brand, not only shows.” He said viewers have stayed with HBO despite the loss of its signature shows (“The Sopranos” and “Sex and the City”) and its failed new efforts (“John From Cincinnati”) because they were attached to a sense of quality that HBO had successfully created in its brand (“It’s not TV. It’s HBO.”). FX wants viewers to see a common sensibility and quality in its schedule of diverse shows, he said.

Most cable networks with familiar brands will be staying the course. Characters will still be welcome at USA. TNT still knows drama.

It takes a long time to build a brand name, and cable networks, whose shows are less expensive than broadcast networks, are used to moving fast, according to Derek Bane, a senior analyst at SNL Kagan, a television research firm. “I don’t know how much weight tag-line branding has,” he said. “People look for good programming. A lot of it is good advertising and good word of mouth. I don’t think a lot of people tune in to a channel because of a great tag line,” he said.

Further complicating the new branding efforts is the uncertainty of programming because of the current writers strike and the digital revolution.

Here’s a sampling of what viewers can expect on basic cable in 2008:

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AMC

AMC once called itself “Television for People Who Love Movies.” Now it’s “The Future of Classic.”

“What we’re looking to do is combine the best movies with high-end scripted originals,” said general manager and executive vice president Charlie Collier.

The movie channel tested the waters for original programming two years ago with “Broken Trail,” an Emmy-winning miniseries. Next came last summer’s “Mad Men,” a Golden Globe-nominated drama. On Jan. 20, the network will launch “Breaking Bad,” a series about a “repressed everyman” diagnosed with a fatal illness, Collier said.

Created by writer Vince Gilligan (“The X-Files”), “Breaking Bad” stars Emmy-nominated actor Bryan Cranston (“Malcolm in the Middle”) as a chemistry teacher who becomes a manufacturer of crystal meth. Its producer, Mark Johnson, and cinematographer John Toll have won Oscars. “This is as close as you can get to film on television,” Collier said.

Collier said he’d like AMC, like HBO, to be “creator-friendly,” a network where writers can bring smart projects they’re passionate about and know they will be produced in a high-quality, cinematic way. “We’re working with a lot of Hollywood talent,” he said. He said classic movies will also be curated and shown alongside individual projects to create an environment of quality rather than just fill space. For instance, he said “Goodfellas” was programmed to precede “Mad Men” since both had cinematic qualities and told stories about “a group of men to whom the rules do not apply.”

Other upcoming series and miniseries in development have been stalled during the writers strike. “Breaking Bad,” was kept to a seven-episode arc plus the pilot. If the strike is resolved early in the year, “Mad Men” will begin to film Season 2 and “we’ll be able to keep the cadence going,” he said.

In any case, he added, AMC has a core of classic movies. “If you have a core, you have a foundation for a house. It’s obviously architecturally solid,” he said.

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FX

The new spots for FX announcing its tag line “There is no box,” will tell you what it is not. “Nip/Tuck” for instance isn’t about miracle cures, “Rescue Me” isn’t about heroes, “Damages” isn’t about law, or order, and “Dirt” isn’t about perfect men or good girls.

Landgraf said he put off a branding campaign during the years that its three top shows (“Rescue Me,” “Nip/Tuck” and “The Shield”) featured white, male protagonists in their 40s. “If we had branded at that time, I felt it was tantamount to hanging up a sign that said you [other] people are not welcome.” With female leads in “Dirt,” “The Riches” and “Damages,” he said the schedule appealed to older and younger men and women. “But they were united by a common psychographic,” he said. “This sense of cliche-defying, boundary-busting originality.”

Upcoming pilots, one picked up and one already produced, include: “Pretty Handsome,” a Ryan Murphy series starring Joseph Fiennes, Carrie-Anne Moss, Blythe Danner and Robert Wagner, and “Sons of Anarchy” by Kurt Sutter and Art and John Linson.

Considering the network’s dependence on scripted programming, Landgraf said he is anxious for the strike to end. New seasons of “Damages” and “Rescue Me” have been ordered, and only half-seasons of “Dirt” and “The Riches” have been completed. The 14 completed episodes of “Nip/Tuck” will run through February, he said.

“We’ve staked our reputation on quality scripted programming. We can’t move forward without the end of the strike.”

The new slogan is also a play on words to let viewers know FX is in position to expand beyond the television set into the digital universe. “I’ve spent the last several years getting FX in the business of owning or co-owning shows it produces and aligning all the rights we did have” to roll into broadband, he said. “Our material is already available on iTunes,” he said. “You’re already seeing us push out beyond the boundaries of our own box.”

The new logo has also eliminated the 20th Century Fox klieg lights, leaving the more modern-looking FX letters and a box.

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Discovery Channel

Still associated with its old tag line, “Explore Your World,” the Discovery Channel will continue to increase its production of high-energy reality programs such as “Man vs. Wild” and “Deadliest Catch,” said the channel’s new president John Ford. He prefers, however, to call them “nonfiction entertainment.”

“ ‘Reality’ has come to lose its meaning,” he said. “It’s come to mean things manufactured for our entertainment. ‘Survivor’ isn’t about the reality of people lost on an island. It’s really a game show on a big set. We like to distinguish what we do as real world, nonfiction storytelling.”

As such, the channel is likely to benefit from the writers strike, Ford said. As popular dramas and comedies go dark, more people are likely to tune in to cable. On the other hand, he said: “Everyone knows that networks are commissioning more nonscripted shows. There could be more competition for nonfiction space.”

Though the channel attracts more male viewers, it is moving away from boy-toy shows such as “American Chopper” and toward new series like “Smash Lab,” featuring experiments that destroy equipment to explore new improvements, and “Fight Quest,” following two young men around the world as they learn various martial arts from masters. The channel will return to big Sunday-night specials and will air a four-hour miniseries on the human body in March. A new Josh Bernstein series will air this summer.

In addition, Ford said: “We hope to get the talent to act with each other. Wouldn’t it be fun to have the ‘Mythbusters’ meet Bear Grylls?”

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Lifetime

With a 31% increase in its programming budget this year, Lifetime Television, the leader in women’s TV, had commissioned enough movie scripts to be in production by strike time, said Susanne Daniels, the president of entertainment in charge of both Lifetime Television and Lifetime Movie Network.

She said close to 20 movies are in various stages of development, including “Queen Sized” on Jan. 12; “Racing for Time” on Feb. 16. “Memory Keeper’s Daughter,” starring Dermot Mulroney and Emily Watson, and “The Capture of the Green River Killer,” starring Tom Cavanagh, will air later in the year.

Daniels said Lifetime, much parodied for its “Television for Women” tag line and cliche-ridden story lines, will be moving away from programs about women in peril and female victims and more toward comedies, action and reality programs, such as “How to Look Good Naked,” hosted by Carson Kressley on Jan. 4.

While the hit series “Army Wives” brought in many new viewers in the desired younger and urban demographics, Daniels said the strike precludes any new episodes at this point. Another scripted series, “Burnt Toast,” based on Teri Hatcher’s memoir, is also on the back burner.

Daniels said she doesn’t expect much competition this year from Oxygen, which was recently bought by NBC Universal and joins its other top cable channels, Bravo, Sci Fi, and USA.

“It takes a while to get things going,” said Jeff Gaspin, the president and chief operating officer of Universal Television Group, who now oversees Oxygen. Viewers will start to see more changes on that network in 2009, he said.

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TruTV

On Jan. 1, a year after its announced re-branding, CourtTV will become TruTV. The tag line “Not reality. Actuality” means the network will continue broadening its reality programming beyond the courtroom to attract “real engagers.” “This is life coming at you in real terms,” said Steve Koonin, the president of Turner Entertainment Networks. “All our shows will have a first-person narrative.”

The switch came about after some sophisticated and expensive research into the psychographics of the network’s viewers.

“Court TV has had two audiences,” Koonin said. “The small but passionate daytime audience that tuned in for the court proceedings. At night, in prime time, we had younger men watching the action programming and women watching the mystery-solving programming. We are going to skew more male and more younger by bringing ‘real engager’ programming.”

Koonin, who oversaw TNT’s “We Know Drama” and TBS’ “Very Funny” branding, said this is the first time he has undertaken a re-branding during a time of strong growth. Instead of shrinking the focus, he said he is broadening it. Though Court TV was a clear and recognizable brand, he said it was almost a barrier for new-viewer changes in the schedule.

“In order to continue growing, we have to bring new viewers into the brand,” said Marc Juris, TruTV’s executive vice president and general manager. “We’re trying to unlock our unrealized potential reach.”

While live footage from trials will continue to air during the day, unscripted shows such as “Beach Patrol” and “Speeders” will take over at night. To create “shortcuts to the brain” to help “real engagers” get “conscious consideration” of TruTV as one of their favorite channels, he said there will be “a lot of adrenaline-based programming.”

On Jan. 1, “Ocean Force” will launch a series on the lifeguards of Huntington Beach. Also in January, “The Real Hustle” will use a hidden camera to show how vulnerable people are to real cons and scams. “Black Gold” will feature dueling oil prospectors.

Viewers will also see new packaging of the programs with a more contemporary tone and a brighter palette, Juris said.

Though a writers strike may be good for unscripted programming, he said any benefit would be short-lived. “Simply put, you never want our audience to find another medium to entertain them and change habits.”

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lynn.smith@latimes.com