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Wall to Wall builds up web TV channels FM2007 PREVIEW: Wall to Wall, the UK indie bought out last week by Shed Media, is planning an internet TV channel based on its hit genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? but is being hampered by archive clearance issues. The firm, which Shed is acquiring for £25m (US$50.1m), already has two channels on start-up internet TV service Joost and is gearing up for the launch of a third, but its ambitions also extend to its best-known format. Who Do You Think You Are? gained its own magazine and website with exclusive video footage when the series returned this autumn on BBC1 but Wall to Wall wants to go further and create a dedicated internet TV channel. "That's definitely on the horizon, but the issue with Who Do You Think You Are? is that it's crammed full of archive, so to put it on Joost would require online clearance," Wall to Wall director of legal and commercial affairs Claire Hungate told C21. "Each episode probably contains between five and 10 minutes of archive and you're probably talking 15 different archive providers. If each wants £2,000 (US$4,050) a minute for their material then there's no internet TV business model that makes sense to pay out that kind of money at the moment." But the economic models for internet TV are beginning to emerge. Joost has this month begun to pay a share of ad revenue to some of its longest-serving content partners and Wall to Wall is among these. Like other indies attempting to capitalise on new terms of trade, Wall to Wall is exploring ways to cash in on its catalogue programming. The firm currently offers around eight hours from its archives on each of its existing Joost channels: Wall to Wall Documentary and Wall to Wall Lifestyle. While it is limited in its abilities to exploit another one of its hit shows, New Tricks, since rights reside with BBC Worldwide, it retains control over Who Do You Think You Are?, meaning an internet TV channel is possible just as soon as the returns justify it. In the meantime, the firm is proceeding with a new Joost channel, Wall to Wall Reality. This will initially draw on a series called Spy, made for the BBC, in which ordinary people leave their normal lives behind to assume a new identity in a new city and experience MI5, MI6, CIA and Mossand spy training techniques. To learn more about turning programmes into channels come along to C21's FutureMedia Conference 2007 at BAFTA on December 13. To see the agenda, click here.
Jonathan Webdale 6 Dec 2007 © C21 Media 2007 
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