January, and specialty fever is again breaking up the post-Christmas blues. While would-be new niche-service programmers take their strategies to the crtc for licensing round two and the six services launched a year ago soldier on, established specialties like The Learning Channel are contemplating schedule changes to hold audience share in an increasingly splintered market.

tlc has come a long way since its beginnings as the Appalachian Community Satellite Network teaching reading to mountain-dwellers in the early ’80s. Expanding its educational mandate mid-decade, the floundering u.s. service was purchased by Discovery Communications in 1991 and has since seen major revisions to its schedule.

Penetration in Canada now tops 4.5 million, in the u.s., a whopping 44.3 million homes. According to John Ford, senior vp of programming for tlc, success is due in part to placing as much emphasis on the entertainment and production value of the programming as on the educational component. The programming strategy is straightforward: ‘We zig when the conventional broadcasters zag.’

That specialty scheduling is a different beast than the mainstream broadcasters’ crystallizes when looking at the tlc sked: do-it-yourself programs with zero child-appeal dominating the after-school slots, the odd theme day running 30 30-minute episodes of a series, back-to-back, and a combined vertical and horizontal schedule in development.

tlc currently operates with a loosely vertical schedule, opening with six hours of commercial-free children’s programming in the morning, cooking and craft shows in the early afternoon, which bleed into more home improvement-focused programs until primetime.

The channel also walks away from the children’s market on Saturday and Sunday mornings in a deliberate attempt to tap viewers with nary an interest in Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, says Ford.

‘We get good ratings in early weekday primetime and Saturday and Sunday mornings with shows for adults. When there isn’t a lot of choice for them, we find it’s a good time to nab them.’

The massive u.s. audience base makes it easier to practice alternative instead of combative programming. tlc is regularly rated 14th or 15th amongst the u.s. specialties, and this year is running a primetime A.C. Nielsen ratings average 0.6 in primetime (265,000 households) and 0.4 in daytime programming in the u.s.

Program-by-program ratings for the Canadian market aren’t solicited by tlc because advertising sales isn’t an option, nor is including Canadian eyeballs in the service’s cumulative reach statistics.

Generally, u.s. program viewing trends tend to play out similarly in Canada, albeit on a smaller scale, says Ford.

Brought over from programming at Discovery in 1991, Ford has been instrumental in creating programming environments, large blocks of programming running on the same theme. ‘It’s a kind of fly paper approach,’ he says of tlc’s New Year’s day sked, 30 episodes of Ancient Warriors.

‘We’re not counting on anybody sitting and watching for five hours. Maybe they’ll just pop in for a half-hour, but if there are enough people doing that, you’ve got a good rating.’

tlc’s other signature strategy – branding the network by broadcasting world premiers of high-profile adventure/entertainment/science programs Ford calls ‘stunts’ – is also successful, with New Year’s Eve’s Out of This World program, which examined the possibility of alien life forms, bringing in tlc’s second highest rating night ever, a 1.4 household average for the evening.

But while Ford is satisfied with how the current sked performs, there are some changes in the works for implementation the third quarter this season. Most significant will be the move from vertical to horizontal scheduling in one, possibly two, primetime hours. The 8 p.m. and/or 10 p.m. block will be a slotted history or science hour, with possibly a regular series of some kind slotted in at 9 p.m.

‘I can’t say the changes we’re going to make are a scientific thing. It’s more our gut feeling and some ratings and focus group work. But it seems obvious that in a world of 50 channels, becoming more predictable is going to be an asset in reaching viewers. We’re after solid, vertical audience flow combined with good, predictable, horizontal scheduling which is easier to promote.’

tlc practices alternative programming for the most part, tackling only a&e with a combative approach and steering clear of competing head-to-head with The Discovery Channel to ensure the two Discovery-owned stations are maximizing their joint share of the audience.

It doesn’t mean, however, that tlc sits outside the battle for audience generated by the mainstream broadcasters. Like every other Canadian and u.s. broadcaster that isn’t ctv or nbc, tlc is in a quandary about what to do against the Thursday 10 p.m. albatross, er.

‘You have to find something you think will appeal to that segment of the audience not watching er, and frankly, it’s anyone’s guess. I can’t afford to dump anything and I won’t give up on any time period, so we’re trying to find a way to counter-program effectively. Chances are we’re going to fail, but it won’t be because we gave up,’ says Ford.

Almost 65% of tlc’s schedule is original production, necessary since ‘there aren’t any prime documentaries sitting on the shelf in quantity anywhere.’

Currently 4.5 out of six children’s hours are Canadian productions including Iris the Happy Professor and Little Star, both produced by Montreal-based Desclez Productions, and Prisma Productions’ Kitty Cats.

Overall, the schedule is about 10% Canadian, with Life On the Digital Edge, produced by ice, Montreal, currently in production for launch this year.

tlc has invested a cumulate $9 million in coproductions and acquisitions since 1991, says Ford.

Licence fees run $10,000 to $15,000 for the acquisition of a half-hour children’s series. Life on the Digital Edge is running upwards of $15,000 a half-hour for primetime airing. Generally, tlc looks at the whole budget and is willing to spend about 30% of the budget for North American rights on a program it coproduces.

‘For our primetime stuff, pace and great picture quality is the key thing. We’re in a very competitive environment and we’ve got to keep holding them,’ says Ford.