• by Alex Weprin , March 29, 2018

IFC, the cable channel owned by AMC Networks, is known for its off-kilter brand of comedy programming.

Now, the channel is looking for advertisers that share that sensibility, as it plans deeper integrations with its brand, particularly in late night.

“We have decided this year that 'slightly off' can pay off, so we are giving more opportunities for advertisers to get involved with the brand,” Blake Callaway, executive VP of marketing and digital media for IFC, tells Television News Daily. “Obviously we are selling the shows, but we have a huge calendar of things we can do each month.”

For example, on digital IFC will roll out "Sloth TV" in its digital apps and website -- "like having a yule log, but every single month," Callaway says. Among the original and acquired long-form programming for this feature is footage of a sloth crawling through the grass, or a grandmother knitting a sweater once the weather gets cold in the fall. 

On TV, the channel is launching its response to the “HQ Trivia” game show phenomenon, adding bingo to its Thursday night weekly movies, with celebrities and regular IFC employees reading the numbers as the movie goes on. Viewers at home can play along in an app.

In late night, the company is expanding its partnership with Funny or Die, and is reviving the 1980's cult favorite "Night Flight," which will air on Friday night/Saturday morning at 1 a.m.

Callaway says advertisers may want to get involved more deeply with the programming on offer, say by sponsoring the bingo prize.

“In late night television we can build it exactly for the advertisers,” Callaway says.

While IFC is beefing up late night and digital for brands, its prime-time lineup remains the star of the show. At its upfront presentation in New York Thursday, the channel announced that it had renewed the baseball-themed comedy “ Brockmire” for a third and fourth season (the show’s second season debuts next month), and that “Documentary Now,” the mockumentary series from creators Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Seth Meyers, would return for a new, third season next year as well, after a hiatus of more than a year.

“After our second season, Bill had a lot going on, Fred had a lot going on and I had a lot going on as well, and it is just so much nicer to have a show than to not have a show on TV, and we were so worried that IFC would just move on,” Meyers quipped at the upfront. “Fingers crossed, when you take a show off and then come back, you do those ‘Roseanne’ numbers.”