A New Fox Network with a Twist

Targeted at the youth market, My Network TV aims to write its own rules, starting with all-year original programming and un-soapy soaps

Top executives from News Corp. (NWS ) and its Fox Television Stations unit announced at a Manhattan press conference Feb. 22 that the media giant will launch a new TV network, called My Network TV, in September.

The network will be backboned by 10 Fox-owned broadcast stations in major markets that were left without a network affiliation when UPN merged with the WB to form CW in late January. Fox Television Stations Chief Executive Jack Abernethy said My Network TV would immediately seek other affiliates.

HOT AND BOTHERED. Like the CW, My Network TV is aiming for a young audience. It's hard not to notice that My Network TV has a name remarkably consonant with Fox's hot online youth destination MySpace.com, though Abernethy denied to reporters that this was intentional.

In contrast to the CW and other U.S. networks, My Network will build its prime time around a "telenovella" model. Its two prime-time shows, Desire and Secrets, slated to debut in September, will run every weeknight for one hour, completing an entire story arc in a 13-week season.

Desire is about brothers fleeing the Mafia, who tussle for the love of a woman engaged to a third man. Secrets offers ambition, backstabbing, and excellent clothes set against the backdrop of the fashion industry. Presentations for these shows revealed that Fox's understanding of what viscerally attracts viewers -- especially younger ones -- remains undimmed: The shows promise to be steamy. Stars for both shows, all remarkably young and remarkably beautiful, were trotted out at the event.

DON'T CALL THEM SOAPS. The executives onstage -- News Corp. President Peter Chernin, Fox Stations Chairman Roger Ailes, and Abernethy -- cleverly tailored their pitches to station affiliates. The station-affiliate business is under severe pressure today, as station owners' ad revenues are threatened by both the TiVo-ing (TIVO ) of the TV universe and network moves to sell their content directly to consumers via platforms like Apple's (AAPL ) iTunes.

The Fox executives repeatedly promised favorable, albeit unspecified, revenue splits, and said there would be no "reverse compensation" -- meaning the affiliates would not be charged for My Network TV programming. Other shows in development for the network include crime news show On Scene and three reality shows, Catwalk, Celebrity Love Island, and America's Brainiest.

That Secrets and Desire are both daily dramas -- and ones with story lines promising sex, betrayal, and lust from impeccably dressed characters -- ensures that they'll be referred to as soap operas. Abernethy, however, bristled at that characterization.

"These aren't soaps," he insisted. Soap operas "have story lines that go on for 30 years." He also said that My Network TV's shows will have much better production values. (Of course, good production values didn't stop the likes of Dynasty from being called a soap opera.)

"I INTEND TO WIN." Chernin said that My Network TV will run 52 weeks of fresh programming, another departure from the American prime-time model. As actress Donna Feldman, whose character on Secrets was described by Abernethy as being "every homemaker's worst nightmare," put it, "We're making TV history!"

While such words smack of bravado, there is some truth to them. This marks the first major move from Fox Television under the leadership of Ailes, who didn't hesitate to burnish his bona fides as a fierce competitor. "Losing is highly overrated as a learning experience. I intend to win," he said, sounding like, oh, a fiercely ambitious co-star of a My Network TV series.

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Fine is media columnist for BusinessWeek in New York
Edited by Patricia O'Connell

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