THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 25, 1994 TAG: 9410250050
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By Larry Bonko, Television Writer
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
FROM THE Family Channel's cool new digs in Lynnhaven, faxes are flying to the Far East. Australia is on the phone. So is the United Kingdom.
The channel's president and chief executive officer, Timothy R. Robertson, said he wants to create Family Channels all over the world.
To visit the new headquarters of International Family Entertainment Inc. in Virginia Beach is to believe it.
They are serious about making this a better world by showing the adventures of Rin Tin Tin and Black Beauty to the Brits, Aussies and Asians.
Richard J. Busciglio, vice president of international development, says Australia looks good for 1995. Then it will be on to Taiwan and mainland China. I read somewhere where IFE chairman Pat Robertson is thinking of extending his reach into Vietnam.
(Isn't Robertson ever the media darling? ABC said it plans to dig deep into his financial empire this week on ``PrimeTime Live,'' and Esquire magazine this month published a piece about how Robertson built an international conglomorate by starting with a UHF station in Portsmouth that cost $37,000. Esquire had the audacity to say that Robertson's headquarters are in ``the small coastal town of Virginia Beach, Va.'' Heck. The Kempsville neighborhood is bigger than most cities in this state.)
Family Channel United Kingdom has been up and running for months, reaching 3.5 million subscribers in a country that's been content until now to live with four channels. Family Channel UK has some programs seen on The Family Channel in the United States such as ``The Mighty Jungle'' and ``Snowy River: The McGregor Saga,'' but it's hardly a copy of what American viewers are watching.
``Totally customized viewing,'' Busciglio said.
In England, they show reruns of ``Moonlighting,'' ``Rhoda'' and ``Lou Grant.'' IFE picked up the rights to those shows when it bought MTM Entertainment.
When The Family Channel was born as the CBN Cable Network 13 years ago, it was the channel of black-and-white reruns. Remember ``The Life of Riley''? Since then, the growth of the Robertsons' broadcasting properties has been so fast, so dizzying, so global, that it takes your breath away.
One minute, Robertson is digging deep to buy a UHF station in Portsmouth that nobody else wants. The next minute, he's a major player in television with a channel that reaches 63 percent of American housholds and generates annual revenues of $220 million.
What they are doing at IFE's new offices in Virginia Beach, in addition to reaching out to markets across the globe, is arranging for millions in new programming.
You won't see a satellite dish or a transmitter or a soundstage or a makeup artist or a TV star of any magnitude in these offices, but here is where The Family Channel action is. From here, the plans and finances spring for batches of original Family Channel programming including these completed projects:
Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt join in concert in New Orleans for a Christmas special to premiere on Nov. 30 at 8 p.m.
Jonathan Brandis of ``seaQuest DSV'' stars in the folk tale ``Good King Wenceslas'' on Dec. 4 at 4 p.m. as well as on Dec. 7 and Christmas.
Jill Eikenberry of ``L.A. Law'' stars in ``Rugged Gold,'' a film about earthquakes and life in an Alaskan frontier mining town on Dec. 10 at 8 p.m. with additional showings on Dec. 11, 16, 18 and Christmas Day.
Kris Kristofferson just wrapped up in Richmond where he was filming ``Tad'' for The Family Channel. Tad was Abraham Lincoln's youngest son.
There are approximately 250 employees of IFE in Virginia Beach who help to make it all happen. They needed more room to do what they do, and that is why International Family Entertainment is in expanded office space today.
I hear a phone. Is Sri Lanka calling? by CNB