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Linda Hardesty
In an effort to drive distribution, the Outdoor Channel is spending $3 million on its first major consumer marketing campaign, which will run through 2000.
Launched in 1993, the network focuses on hunting and fishing and couldn't afford to launch a major marketing campaign until now, said EVP Jake Hartwick.
The marketing campaign will encourage sportsmen to call their cable operators and request the channel. The effort will include full-page ads in sportsmen magazines early next year. Radio and television advertisements will be added in the latter half of 2000.
The Outdoor Channel is carried on Dish Network and on more than 1700 cable systems with a total subscriber count of more than 6.2 million, up 1.7 million since last January.
One obstacle to cable carriage has been the Outdoor Channel's refusal to pay launch support to cable operators, network executives said. "Our business plan has never been predicated on launch support, and we're not going to start now," said Hartwick. "We don't pay Dish Network either. Our attitude toward DBS and cable is the same."
Hartwick said his network's programming may not be politically correct, but there is a sizable demand for it. "There are 60 million people out there who do fishing, hunting or both," he said.
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