PPV Movie Payoff Is Thorne's Pitch

TIM CLARK

Gary Thorne expects to help operators sell more movies.

Named president/COO of Hubbard Media Group's new Moviewatch channel, Thorne says research shows information about films drives up demand among viewers.

"Moviewatch will celebrate movies, entertain and inform viewers and, importantly, make money for all our distributors," says Thorne. "Moviewatch is the one entertainment network that will have high consumer demand while helping MSOs and others be even more effective marketers of pay television and movies."

Without the leverage of a Turner or Discovery, it may take more than that to sell the idea to cable operators, especially if they seek analog carriage. Thorne declined to detail plans for marketing the channel to MSOs, or to say how much in subscription fees the channel would seek.

Thorne has been involved with Moviewatch since its inception and will oversee all multimedia operations at the network. He previously served as SVP-business development for U.S. Satellite Broadcasting (USSB).

Prior to USSB, he was CEO of Audio King, which merged with Ultimate Electronics in 1997. Thorne also served as VP-brand manager of Magnavox and worked at other national retail companies.

Moviewatch's approach was hatched after a year of research produced by Thorne and other former USSB execs. The research backed up USSB's experience with pay TV in the digital satellite arena.

Thorne says the channel has a healthy budget but that a break-even estimate has not been determined for the 24-hour network, which launches fourth quarter 2001.

The Moviewatch brand promises to entertain and inform viewers by delivering original content and information in order "to make better and more frequent choices" from the thousands of movies available. The network's programming will cater to movies in all windows of release, with an emphasis on pay-per-view and premium.

Thorne says Moviewatch programming and its companion Web site will be skewed toward a younger demographic.

Show content will be re-purposed for broadband use on the Internet. Thorne also says Moviewatch's programming schedule will be designed to adapt to any media, with content specifics to be announced in the near future.