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View Full Version : New Channel - Ovation TV - Comes To DIRECTV June 20th On Channel 274


FilmCritic3000
06-10-2007, 01:40 AM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070605/tv_nm/ovation_dc

http://www.ovationtv.com

Ovation TV salutes "Revolutionaries" with relaunch

By Kimberly Nordyke Mon Jun 4, 11:12 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Ovation TV, which touts itself as the only network devoted exclusively to art and personal creativity, has lined up a 15-day programming event titled "American Revolutionaries" that will help kick off its upcoming relaunch.
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For 15 consecutive days, Ovation TV will devote its entire primetime and weekend schedules to 30 hours of programming that "salut(es) American innovators who changed the meaning of art." The programming event will kick off at 8 p.m. on July 1 with the cable premiere of "Basquiat," which will be the first feature film ever aired on Ovation.

The event also will include three world TV premieres -- "Meet Marlon Brando," "The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story" and "Old Weird America: Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music" -- along with the U.S. TV premieres of "The Last 48 Hours of Kurt Cobain" and "Frank Lloyd Wright: Murder, Myth and Modernism."

Ovation is set to relaunch June 20, coinciding with its premiere on Channel 274 on DirecTV, which will give the network full national coverage for the first time in its 10-year history. Upon relaunch, it will feature an "energetic" new look and a new primetime schedule that will revolve around "genre nights" dedicated to performance, people, art, music and film.

The goal of the network, which will reach nearly 15 million subscribers upon relaunch, is to make the arts more accessible to viewers in their daily lives, with the new schedule featuring a mix of both mainstream and alternate art forms.

"We're going to continue to serve art aficionados ... but also have a broader mix (of programming)," Ovation senior vp programming Kris Slava said. "We're not going to abandon classical, fine arts, dance, or any of those (disciplines); we just want to reflect the way that people consume art today."

The "Revolutionaries" event also includes programming on Andy Warhol, Johnny Cash, Madonna, Jack Kerouac and the Beats, Annie Liebovitz, Arthur Miller, Melvin Van Peebles and Matt Groening.

Ovation was acquired in August by Hubbard Media Group and a group of other private investors that includes Arcadia Investment Partners, Corporate Partners II, Perry Capital and the Weinstein Co.

It sounds interesting and I'm always looking for something different to watch. Hopefully it'll be a pretty cool channel but then again, look at what happened to MTV and SCI FI, to name a few.

jamesbobo
06-10-2007, 11:01 AM
The Ub Iwerks story! I'm there. It's about time he gets the credit he deserves.

dswallow
06-10-2007, 12:28 PM
It's like Spike for artsy folk.

I wonder how many hours of paid programming they'll have in the middle of the night.

:)

JLucPicard
06-10-2007, 12:44 PM
I almost fell asleep just reading the article. ;)

BUT, I am glad for the people who will tune in and find this interesting! Any new channel that is not a shopping channel gets a :up: from me.

FilmCritic3000
06-10-2007, 07:52 PM
It's like Spike for artsy folk.

I wonder how many hours of paid programming they'll have in the middle of the night.

:)

It sounds like Ovation TV will resemble Bravo in the late '80s/early '90s. I'm really looking forward to this channel.

FilmCritic3000
06-20-2007, 01:07 AM
Bumping this thread, as the channel debuts on DIRECTV today, most likely at 6AM Eastern. It was added to my TiVo lineup yesterday. As of this post, DIRECTV hasn't added it yet.

jamesbobo
06-20-2007, 08:31 AM
I just checked and it is on. Haven't found the Iwerks episode yet.

super dave
06-20-2007, 10:56 AM
Is it in HD? ;)

bullitt
06-20-2007, 04:41 PM
Oh Boy! :rolleyes: I can't wait! More dreck that will probably be 3 hours a day of "fresh programming" repeated 4 times and followed by 12 hours of the ubiquitous paid programming. I'm starting to drool in anticipation. :eek:

JimSpence
06-20-2007, 05:50 PM
It seems to require the Plus level (or whatever it's called now) of programming.