• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, August 10, 2010

Even with the recent addition of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Lionsgate's TV Guide Network was unable to ride the strong scatter market to profitability in the April-June quarter. The network lost $6.6 million in the quarter on revenues of $29 million.

Lionsgate has a 51% stake in the network, accruing half of the losses. But CEO Jon Feltheimer is pointing to this fall for a growth spurt as reruns of Showtime's "Weeds" join the lineup.

The month of October, he said, is a "critical time to start looking at our ratings." Feltheimer said ratings have been "softer" than expected for reruns of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." But stronger lead-in programming could boost it.

In prime time -- before "Curb's" June launch -- TV Guide Network saw ratings down 3% among adults 18 to 49 for the broadcast season, by one measure.

Feltheimer said on an earnings call that the network posted notable increases in pricing and volume in the upfront. It currently strips reruns of ABC's "Ugly Betty" and MTVs "Punk'd" in the 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. hours, respectively.

Nonetheless, the network is a tiny portion of Lionsgate's business. Its struggles were part of a $64 million company-wide loss in the quarter on revenues of $327 million -- which were down 14%.

Lionsgate moves further into the network business on Oct 1. as FearNet -- a broadband and VOD venture in the horror genre -- launched as a linear channel. Lionsgate has a 33% stake, with Sony and Comcast other partners. Lionsgate said Tuesday it expects the network to be in between 10 and 20 million homes by fall 2011, which could be helped along by Comcast.

Feltheimer added that when FearNet was launched, there was a feeling that the development of dynamic ad insertion would propel ad sales for the VOD offering. Instead, that potential innovation has rolled out slowly, prompting the debut of a traditional channel.

"It's really taken way too long ... it's just not as strong of an offering for the advertisers," Feltheimer said, suggesting that the triple-opportunities of broadband, VOD and linear will attract marketers.

A bright spot: the company announced a deal to distribute content from its Epix venture with Viacom and MGM via Netflix, which makes the Epix business instantly profitable.

Lionsgate's TV production operations includes two shows rolling out new seasons -- AMC's "Mad Men" and Showtime's "Weeds," which should drive growth for the current quarter.