Groundbreaking gay-themed channel enters the picture

By Suzanne C. Ryan, Globe Staff, 8/28/2003

After a year or so of industry talk about the concept of a gay-themed TV channel, DirecTV is taking the plunge tomorrow, launching the nation's first channel aimed exclusively at the gay and lesbian market.

Here! Pay Per View is a movies-only channel available to subscribers of DirecTV, a digital satellite-television service, who can use their remote controls to select from a rotating list of four to six new films a month on Channel 170. The fee per movie is $3.99, which will be added to viewers' monthly bills.

To be sure, the channel is limited in scope. DirecTV has only 11.5 million subscribers nationwide. Still, like other niche efforts before it -- such as Black Entertainment Television and the male-focused Spike TV -- here! is groundbreaking. It also comes at a time when the presence of gay characters on television has generated lots of buzz, with this summer's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" and "Boy Meets Boy" on Bravo.

"The potential here is exponential," said Scott Seomin, a spokesman for GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. "The channel could decide to do a block of gay and lesbian reality shows. It could have an hourlong talk show about the transgender community. It could start to produce its own sitcoms and dramas. Television is such a copycat medium. We hope that not only is here! successful but that others will copy its success."

Last year, MTV and Showtime -- both owned by Viacom -- announced plans to collaborate on a gay-themed channel. The timetable for that plan has since been slowed due to the economic climate, Showtime said.

Filmmakers Paul Colichman and Stephen J. Jarchow created and financed the here! channel through their film company Regent Entertainment. They chose pay-per-view as an outlet because it was a much cheaper option than launching a traditional 24-hour channel.

Colichman, who coproduced the Academy-Award winning "Gods and Monsters" in 1998, said the movies on here! will include dramas, comedies, and thrillers, featuring characters who happen to be gay. He said, "In each case, we will be looking for media images that provide validation and support for the gay community."

The channel's initial movie premieres will include 2002's "Sordid Lives," a comedy about coming out to a Texas family as it converges for a matriarch's funeral. The film stars Olivia Newton-John, Beau Bridges, and Delta Burke. "It's in the Water," released in 1999, is a story about what happens when an AIDS hospice opens in a small, conservative Texas town. Alex, a woman bored with her marriage, goes to work at the hospice and discovers romance with a female co-worker. "The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me" is an adaptation of a one-man play by David Drake that explores the urban gay male experience.

Colichman said he is looking for sponsors for the channel so "the gay community will know who is supporting them." To date, the magazines Out and The Advocate have signed on. He declined to name any others. Sponsors will get PBS-style credits, rather than running ads that interrupt programming.

The entrepreneur hopes to expand beyond DirecTV within six months and have here! listed as a pay-per-view or video-on-demand service on cable systems nationwide. In March, the channel intends to launch a 30-minute late-night talk show called "hearsay!," which will be hosted by an as yet unnamed gay man and straight woman. "It will be an alternative to Letterman and Kimmel. Something female-friendly and gay-friendly," he said. That show will be aired at no charge to viewers -- both to DirecTV subscribers and, Colichman hopes, subscribers to ordinary cable services.

By next summer, Colichman hopes to have launched a few scripted series, which would be available for a flat monthly rate, probably about $8.99. "We have six in development. I'm not sure how many will make it."

He has plans to air original movies as well.

Michael Thornton, DirecTV's senior vice president of program acquisitions, said clustering such thematic programming on one channel is an experiment for the satellite service, which typically offers 55 pay-per-view movies each day for its subscribers. "This is something we thought was very worthwhile to try," he said. "What remains to be seen is whether other mainstream media will support this group of individuals to the point where they don't need a channel targeted at them. The broadcast networks already have shows like `Will & Grace.' But will they step up and provide more to satisfy this audience?"

Colichman is skeptical. "Shows like `Queer Eye' are designed more for straight viewers than gay viewers. They want to introduce the straight community to gay people," he said. "Our channel is going to fill a different need.

"We will show relationships in the gay community. A hug and a kiss between two men is still controversial on broadcast TV. We will show gay people at home with their boyfriends or their children. We are also concerned about gay teens not having proper role models. They need to be able to see people like themselves on TV as successful and enjoying life.

"And while it's great to have this image of gay people as having exquisite taste and eating at the finest restaurants, the reality is that the gay community is so much broader. We want to show that."

Suzanne Ryan can be reached at sryan@globe.com