|
By Shirley Brady
National Geographic Channel's upfront for advertisers and agencies last week in New York boasted more than a yellow border bar and sneak peeks at its new shows. It officially threw down the gauntlet at its chief rival-Discovery-and asked advertisers to embrace Nat Geo's ownership of exploration that NGC says has been abandoned by that brand.
Bruce Lefkowitz, the former Discovery Networks SVP of ad sales who oversees NGC sales in his role as Fox Cable's EVP of ad sales, says the NGC programming previewed last week fills "the enormous niche vacated" by his previous employer as it moves from natural history and factual docs to more reality- and entertainment-based series such as American Chopper and Monster Garage. Nat Geo's upfront presentation-dubbed "More to Explore"-will be delivered in more detail in meetings with individual agencies, where Lefkowitz and his team will hammer home Nat Geo's ownership of Discovery's old niche with a call to action that plays off the network's new "Dare to Explore" tag line.
"There is a lot more programming for advertisers and viewers to explore this year with what [programming chief] John Ford brings to the table," Lefkowitz says. "We've got double the amount of original programming this year, and as we cross the 50 million home threshold, the folks on Madison Avenue are seeing that we've more than just arrived-we're really starting to fulfill the promise that we saw in the brand."
Ford, the Discovery veteran who joined NGC as its EVP of programming last year, says his network's upcoming series and specials are crafted to be "like Velcro-viewers need to stick to them."
He's excited about pushing the Nat Geo brand beyond nature-based programming into more dramatic realms of exploration, science and history. Ford points to series launching in the fourth quarter such as Interpol Investigates (working title), which takes viewers inside the international policing organization, and Seconds to Disaster, a deconstruction of high-profile disasters. Both new shows will be teased in prime time in the third quarter. Other new series joining NGC's prime time in the fourth quarter: Naked Science, answering "the most pressing scientific questions of our time"; Mayday!, a re-creation of actual plane crashes and how they might have been averted; Expeditions to the Edge, featuring explorers' brushes with death; Into the Unknown, modern-day explanations for age-old puzzles such as Stonehenge; Mega Structures, about monumental buildings past and present; and Totally Wild!, a fast-paced look at the animal kingdom.
Fourth-quarter specials include Inside the Secret Service, touting exclusive access to the president's bodyguards, and Egypt: Curse of the Pharaoh, which uses forensic technology to debunk myths.
Specials in the first quarter include Predators at War, recasting an African water hole as a war zone, and Super Hominid, featuring mother/daughter paleoanthropologists Maeve and Louise Leakey on the recent discovery of a 7-foot-tall hominid. Second-quarter specials include In the Womb, tracing the human journey from conception to birth; and National Geographic's Most Amazing, highlighting the adventures of National Geographic's explorers.
Theme weeks in the fourth quarter include "Tycoon Toys" and "Engineering Feats." Stunt weeks slated for 2005 include "Swarms," "President's Week" and "Parajumpers" in the first quarter; and, in the second quarter, a series of religious explorations under the banner "Quest for Truth," kicking off Easter Sunday, "Shark Bites," (a natural for the man who launched "Shark Week" at Discovery) and "Dangerous Jobs."
Back to this issue
|
