If you are the parent of a tween, you probably can’t help but know more than you want to about High School Musical, the syrupy Disney made-for-TV mega-hit (dubbed ‘Grease without the dirty parts’ by one dad) that aired in Canada last year on Family Channel.

The folks at Disney know a good thing when they see it, and surprise-surprise, it’s baaaack. And everyone at Family Channel – from on-air to online to marketing – is on it.

‘High School Musical 2 is a real phenomenon,’ says Kevin Wright, SVP programming at Astral Television Networks, Family’s parent company.

‘We’re really pulling out all the stops to take it to new heights,’ he promises, as the channel gears up to kick off its fall season with the eagerly awaited sequel on Friday, Aug. 17 at 8 p.m.

Excuse me? Fall season kickoff in August? With a mega-hit on a Friday night? What kind of cockamamie counter-programming scheme is that?

A very effective one, it turns out, as Family (its slogan is ‘never a dull moment’) has, through savvy deal making and marketing, quietly managed to become one of the best-positioned channels on the small screen.

Several strategies have helped it hover near the top of the specialties pile with the likes of YTV, Treehouse and powerhouse TSN.

First up is the exclusive output deal Family has with Disney, in place since Family launched nearly two decades ago. Disney supplies 60% of Family’s programming, and Family is the only place in Canada where viewers can get access to that Disney material that is so popular with the tween demo Family courts.

‘We work closely with Disney,’ says Wright. ‘Our programming strategies are very much in synch.’

You can’t understate the advantages that come with riding the coattails of the programming and marketing might that is Disney. Take High School Musical, for example. Disney’s strategy, says Wright, is to create a ‘sustain,’ and to that end it has turned out a number of spin-offs, including sing-along and dance-along versions that also get to ride the brand and benefit from the timeslot – enough to keep it in people’s minds until the next sequel.

And like Disney, Family does the mid-August launch thing with popular titles on Friday nights (a pariah slot for the over-14 set.) ‘There’s less competition on that night, and it’s been phenomenally successful,’ says Wright.

The less well-known part of the Family success story, however, is its clever positioning in the cable spectrum. Family is actually licensed by the CRTC as a pay service. That means that it is ad-free, virtually 100% funded through subscriber revenue.

However, it positions and carries itself – even referring to itself in the Astral annual report – as a specialty channel. This is due to a deal inked with the BDUs in 1997 when a third tier of specialty channels launched. Family was able to move from a standalone premium service that subscribers have to consciously opt into and pay for individually (like The Movie Network, another Astral-owned pay channel) to join the stable of specialty channels offered in the extended basic cable bundle. (U.S. service TBS made a similar leap at that time.)

It was a win-win. The cablers got Family and its attractive Disney-branded programming as a draw to increase penetration in the tier, and Family’s numbers leapt from several hundred thousand to several million subscribers overnight.

‘We had the opportunity to take Family Channel to a whole new paradigm with broader distribution,’ says Wright. ‘The service itself didn’t change in its nature, but it could be taken to a broader audience.’

That base has since expanded even further to 5.3 million subscribers. The BDU deals are negotiated individually, but out of each subscriber’s cable bill, an average of 75 cents goes to Family.

That’s less than other pay channels, most of which collect $8.33 per month, but unlike other pays, it’s a ‘negatve option’ arrangement. (It’s also far more than any of the children’s specialties receives. Teletoon collects an average of 42 cents per month from subscribers, BBC Kids 35 cents, YTV 32 cents, Discovery Kids 24 cents, and Treehouse 11 cents. It should be noted, however, that the others can and do supplement that with ad sales, with varying degrees of success.)

The channel is doing its bit for the home team as well. Its conditions of licence say it must air 25% Canadian programming, and it has put considerable resources into developing an independently produced slate of high-quality programming, including Radio Free Roscoe and Naturally, Sadie from Decode Entertainment and Life with Derek from Shaftesbury Films. And the producers have the Disney formula down solidly enough to have closed the circle, selling the latter two to Disney Channel.

‘We’re in a groove,’ says Wright. ‘It’s the ‘never a dull moment’ brand position being supported by high-quality original programming like Life with Derek, plus the great stuff we get from Disney. And it helps, too, when a movie like High School Musical is available.’

And that 75 cents per subscriber can’t hurt either.