• by kyle , Daisy Whitney , September 22, 2006

It seems that a network can live on video-on-demand alone. A handful of independent VOD-only networks that aren't affiliated with broadcast or cable networks are attracting interest from consumers and advertisers.

The list includes Anime Network, Havoc Television, RipeTV, Music Choice, Mag Rack, and Sportskool. Anime attracts about 660,000 unique VOD views per month. Concert, a channel featuring music programming, scored 900,000 unique views. Havoc TV, which offers music and extreme-sports shows, entices 750,000. Those numbers are comparable to traditional linear networks' on-demand fare, such as that from Discovery, A&E, and Adult Swim.

"In many categories, they exceed linear networks and overperform," says Mitch Oscar, executive vice president of Carat Digital, who organized a mini-upfront presentation earlier this summer for some of the networks.

Advertisers are taking notice. This year, Anime signed deals with Paramount and Cingular. The network counts seven advertisers, up from four last year. Music Choice increased its number of ad partners to 14 from three a year ago. Concert, which focuses on live music and documentaries, landed five advertisers, enabling it to become profitable recently.