Tumbleweeds skip across the highway on the Colorado plains where a national cable network has its unlikely headquarters. At this office the decision was made last week to renew — or in Hollywood lingo, “green light” — the endearing and critically acclaimed cater-waiter sitcom, “Party Down,” for a second season.
Only this is a thousand miles from Hollywood. It’s actually Englewood, home of Starz.
In the TV business, based in Los Angeles and New York, the heartland has long been considered fly- over country, the last place viewers expect to be the source of hundreds of hours of successful TV shows.
But the Front Range has become a center for some of the most innovative fare on TV.
Is it the talent pool? The lower costs, the geography or the state’s place in cable history?
Sure, but also, “it’s the lifestyle,” says Paul Maxwell, industry consultant and founder of CableFAX Daily — more sunshine, less stress, a better living environment.
Maxwell lives in Breckenridge. The Internet means “you don’t have to be anywhere anymore. I have a booster for Wi-Fi on my deck.”
Historically speaking, bold TV operations make sense here. Remote mountain towns were wired early by the cable pioneers who made Colorado home. When satellite uplinks evolved, high altitudes and clear skies helped signals beam unhindered to customers.
In the digital age, geography is less important, but quality of life still counts. And Colorado boasts people with big ideas and the capital to implement them.
From the Comcast Media Center in Centennial, which serves cable systems and TV networks around the world, to CableLabs in Broomfield, a cable-industry research consortium; from satellite firms Dish Network, Echostar and DirecTV, to regional sports networks Fox Sports Rocky Mountain and Kronke (owner of Altitude Sports and Entertainment), Colorado’s touch is evinced across the dial.
From its base in Englewood, Starz turned a corner last year, evolving from a movie service to a network that produces original series, starting with the drama “Crash.” The well-received comedies “Head Case” and “Party Down” followed. Next: the action drama “Spartacus” (think “Sin City” with gladiators).
Starz (with 17 million subscribers) and its sister movie channel Encore (31 million), both claim audiences larger than Showtime. Revenue is up.
In east Denver, at the old Stapleton airport site, another field of satellite dishes sprouts at HDNet, where sports, concerts, documentaries and “Dan Rather Reports” are beamed to nearly 15 million homes. HDNet provides 15 hours a week of original content to cable and satellite systems nationally. The network, owned by Mark Cuban, is the only completely independently owned general entertainment network, competing in a sea of conglomerates.
Fans of “Tough Love” on VH1 probably don’t imagine it is edited and given music and graphics in Centennial. From High Noon Entertainment’s offices and edit bays in the Comcast cable building out on the prairie, it delivers “Warriors” to History Channel, “I Want to Save Your Life” to WE, “Food Network Challenge” to Food Network, “Cake Boss” to TLC and “Factory Made” to Discovery. They’re scheduled to provide more than 300 hours of programming across eight networks this season.
“We intend to be an A-list production company,” said Jim Berger, High Noon CEO.
TV pioneers
Colorado has been in the forefront of the cable television business since the beginning. Ever since industry titan Bill Daniels, father of cable TV, brought TV to small Western towns in the 1950s and proved the efficacy of cable, and Bob Magness and John Malone built Englewood- based Tele-Communications Inc. (now merged into Comcast) into the nation’s largest cable operator, the state has been a base for the industry.
In Littleton, the Comcast Media Center alone processes thousands of hours of programming seen by tens of millions of viewers around the world.
Charlie Ergen made Colorado a hub for satellite TV, first by selling backyard dishes door to door, later by going head to head with Rupert Murdoch’s DirecTV. Ergen’s Dish Network is the country’s No. 2 satellite company.
And Malone’s Liberty Media (majority owner of DirecTV, stakeholder in Starz and QVC) remains an industry monolith. Between Dish Network and DirecTV, the two locally operated companies serve one-third of U.S. homes.
Lately, even smaller independents, like Citizen Pictures, a design and video-production house in Denver, have been “unusually busy making commercials for ad agencies,” according to executive producer Robin Bond.
Colorado’s pool of talent, crew and creativity is solid. There are few union issues here. The only thing missing is a tax incentive to bring more local production. “We’re on the verge of shedding the old view of Denver,” Bond said. “The Democratic National Convention made us fresh on the national stage. Clearly, shooting in Colorado is more affordable than on either coast.”
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
