For any media owner operating or planning a pay television channel, the report offers a huge amount of practical advice that will save time, reduce costs and increase profits.

The report is presented in five sections, each explaining the critical factors to consider when planning TV operations.

1. Pay-TV Economics

• An analysis of Pay-TV economics, key success factors, driving forces and forecasts for Pay-TV development.
• Strategy: Premium, PPV or Subscription TV?
• The Five Stages of the Value Chain.
• The Three Key Success Factors.
• Driving Forces: Demographics>Market Maturity>Ad Spend>Technology.
• Why the dual revenue model of subscription and advertising cannot be used for start-up channels.

2. Managing Pay-TV                         

In-depth analysis of launch/operation processes, including the different business models and the key issues: Finance, Content, Distribution, Interactivity, Marketing and Regulation

• How to establish commission/purchase content ratio.
• Content acquisition strategies.
• Venture capitalists listed - and what they look for.
• Inside advice on technical, regulatory & distribution issues.
• The Five New revenue streams from interactive TV.
• Why Pay-TV's marketing cycle is unique and the boost to cashflow this can create.
• Two factors to create strong channel branding.
• The economic reason for owning content.
• The Four key elements in channel launch and operation.
• How to satisfy distributor demands.
• How to calculate the required target audience share.

3. The business of pay-TV channels                         

• An analysis of costs and potential revenues in Pay-TV, including a sample business plan for a Pay-TV channel.
• Determining investment based on costs:  Content > Marketing > Distribution >
• EPG Transponder > Conditional Access > Uplink > Playout.
• When repeat programming does not lose viewers.
• The positive effect of repeats on cash flow.
• The 11 key elements of a Pay-TV business plan.
• The key revenue streams examined.

4. Pay-TV channels                         

Case studies from a cross section of the industry, such as MTV, Hallmark, FilmFour, Fox Kids & Discovery illustrate key issues and channel strategies. Includes lists of all the European channels currently on the Astra, Eutelsat, Hispasat and Thor satellite systems

Appendices                         

  1.  BSkyB Conditional Access charges and conditions

  2.  UK licensing & legislation

  3.  European legislation

  4.  Glossary 

About the Author

David Brown is a director of european media strategies (ems), a consultancy that specialises in strategic and regulatory issues in broadcasting. He has worked for KPMG Management Consulting, the European Commission, and several broadcasters. He has an MA in Economics and an MSc in Media Management, and wrote Regionalisation & Market Positioning for Pan-European Pay-TV, (FT Media 1998) European Cable and Satellite Economics (Screen Digest – 1999), Focus on the BBC (Informa Media -1999), and Film and Pay-Television (ems 2000). He has written for the Financial Times, Broadcast, Cable & Satellite Europe, Multichannel News, The Scotsman, The Herald, The Times and The Economist. He lectures regularly at Stirling Dept of Film & Media on television economics.