• by Wayne Friedman , March 27, 2013

The new millennial-targeted cable network from Participant TV, which has a reach of 40 million subscribers, has a name: Pivot.

Veteran cable TV executive Evan Shapiro, president of Participant TV, told reporters at an upfront briefing the new network, which targets young viewers 15-34, will start up August 1 with a network tagline: "It's Your Turn.”

Initially, new programming/documentaries will fill much of the schedule. In August, it will launch “Take Part Live,” a five-day-a-week news program that will inform people how to enact social change. Pivot has struck a partnership with Rolling Stone to produce three weeks of specials and live programming in the fall. 

Off-network shows will include reruns of NBC/DirecTV’s "Friday Night Lights" and Syfy’s “Farscape.” Pivot will start its first year with 300 hours of programming. 

Since it started in 2004 by former eBay executive Jeffrey Skoll, Participant Media, the parent of Participant TV, has produced more than 40 fiction and nonfiction films, include "The Help," "Charlie Wilson's War," "Food, Inc.," "An Inconvenient Truth" and Steven Spielberg's recent "Lincoln."

Unlike other young cable networks starting up with mid-size distribution, Pivot will program 24 hours a day with no infomercials in overnight, early morning, or weekend time periods -- time slots that can be difficult to program as well as sell to advertisers.

Participant believes that young viewers will be a rapidly growing and important TV segment. More than 85 million Americans are between the ages of 15 and 34. This group represents 61% of the traditional 18-49 demographic segment.

In keeping with young TV consumers' growing digital media behaviors, Pivot says its linear TV feed and on-demand will be available to pay-TV subscribers on any device through the Pivot app. In what it says is a cable network first, Pivot will also offer a broadband-only subscription, available for a fee without having to purchase a pay-TV package.

advertisement

advertisement