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Friday, January 14, 2005

More People No-See-o Trio

New York Times reports that Trio has lost 14 million subscribers as of 1/1/05 because DirecTV dropped the channel.

I have a nasty feeling I will have to try to find a way to get Trio quickly before it's folded into another one of NBC's networks, or they completely change the brand. I love the idea behind "Brilliant But Canceled." But naturally the fringe and oddities don't sell unless they sell big. How many people have even HEARD of Trio? Wouldn't college students love cultish shows like "Cop Rock"?

Once upon a time I should have conned a friend of mine who lived in NYC at the time into taping something off Trio for me. Not that I was still friends with her. But she is now out of the Big Apple and so obviously never mind.

As I adore television channel origin history, here's the details of that excerpted for those of you without NYT subscriptions:

Trio began telecasting in 1994 out of Toronto and was then run by North American TV, a joint venture between Power Broadcasting and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The network was purchased by USA Networks in 2000 and moved its headquarters to New York.

Two years later, the network hired Lauren Zalaznick as president. Under her guidance, Trio introduced its signature, "Brilliant But Canceled," series, which showed old sitcoms like "Bakersfield, P.D." and dramas like "Cop Rock," which had never garnered much of an audience.

"We're kind of the opposite of the TV Land network, which takes shows that were already popular and brings them back," Ms. Zalaznick said in a 2002 interview. "We're like the underbelly of that. We're finding the things that everyone missed and letting viewers discover them."

In 2003, Trio was acquired by Vivendi Universal when it purchased USA Networks. The channel was rebranded and given a new slogan: pop, culture, TV.

Hmm. Maybe if it has origins in T.O. I could see if it's still on Rogers Cable in the GTA.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 1/14/2005 01:47:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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