Aviation television channel

I love the idea of an aviation channel.

My only caution is ,that having been in the TV business awhile, as I’m sure you know, it takes a long time…and a lot of money… to produce original programming. Even a “cheap” show where vets recount their experiences will eat up more time and money than you could imagine. On original documentary would take even more time.

Unless the backers have very deep pockets, I’d remind our enthuiast friends that not everything wil be brilliant from the start. It’s be best to do a couple of new shows right, than do a bunch on the cheap. As as pointed out earlier, there is plenty of stuff out there to help fill up the time.

If you could get a businesss model for the old Speed channel or some other sucessful startup operation, it would be an eye opener.

Hi

Some more thoughts

There are many hundreds of Aviation related movies
There are probably 5000 hours of aviation Documentaries
There are vast quantities of archival material
There are many hundreds of manufactures promotional films
There are thousands of veterans able to be videoed / interviewed as well as Aviation identities and Industry leaders
There is a wealth of aviation news happening every day
There is so much happening in hundreds of Warbird recovery and restorations every day
AND SO ON

Well this all sounds like it could be drawn together into a pretty well balanced Aviation Channel to me – It doesn’t have to be 24/7 – but you could run it 3 times a day on a shift basis

One or two feature films a day,
Current affairs show
News
Industry spot
Subscriber’s armature video spots
Documentaries
Instructional films
AND SO ON

Looks a bit like a Recipe to me – lets cook it!!!

Kindest regards
John P

I’m not talking about a channel that transmits 24hrs a day, I’m basically thinking along the lines of Discovery wings but with new programmes introduced every month to keep the channel fresh.

There have been some very good ideas put forward on this thread (keep them coming by the way!) and thanks to everyone who has been taking part in this discussion. I will certainly be pushing the idea forward, it might actually end up as a regular DVD release, a streaming channel as well as some broadcasting on Sky – I have good leads in all these areas.

Fact is aviation is a very popular subject that is not served by television very well and I think it’s time to do something about it!

Look I am sorry if this sounds negative to start with.

Actually count up the number of hours of must see footage. Count up the hours per week that YOU are available to watch the material.

Basicly after a month the specialist channel will run out of material.

It would be more viable to run a channel called Planes trains and automobiles (as long as you like trains of course).

So positive end to negative start.

Hi Sconnor,
I really like J Boyle’s idea of running old aviation footage with an introductory background narrative. This is exactly what I was thinking of last night when I saw ‘The Aviator’ for the first time, specifically when watching the part where the making of ‘Hell’s Angels’ features. I would love to see the film accompanied by a background documentary before-hand. Then I would truly appreciate what a mammoth undertaking it was. For example, waiting 6 months for the right clouds, for heavens sake (no pun intended 🙂 )! I would love to see the treatment given to a (1960’s?) French TV series on the exploits of Mirage III pilots (‘The Aeronauts?’). Had me spellbound as a nipper.
I personally would otherwise settle for a quaterly or six monthly DVD covering the restoration scene – probably commercialy unworkable. Look what happened to WW 🙁
Good luck with the project.

Also the British offerings such as Airline, Wings, Flambards, Piece of Cake, Pathfinder, we’ll meet again to name but a few!!!!!

I’d love to see these, as i was born to late to see them, or at least remember them. Would be great to see some interesting programmes rather than the garbage they tend to churn out nowadays

Great idea-theres a lot of material out there. For instance a great many video titles from DD which I can’t really afford to buy but would love to see. For example “de Havilland at Hatfield” or “Binbrook Lightnings”. Talking of old TV shows anyone remember “aeronauts” from the 60’s?.A couple of poorly dubbed french actors, a cheesy theme tune and aerial shots of Mirages?. I didn’t think it was good then (except the flying) but it would be kind of fun to see it again.

You could have things sent in by viewers of unusual stuff from the past,the sort of stuff that could’ve been filmed by people behind the scenes [copy rights and permissions pending of course].
How about requests or question/answer sections.
Why not add a section for relatives of those that fought and served to ask for information/history and reunions.?

Also the British offerings such as Airline, Wings, Flambards, Piece of Cake, Pathfinder, we’ll meet again to name but a few!!!!!

Now that IS a good idea!

More suggestions….

To take an idea from Speedvision…pre Murdoch….
Late Friday nights they’d show an old car movie under the title of “The Lost Drive-In”, and nutty Bruce Dern would introduce a film where cars played a major role. Sometimes the films were noteworthy and good…”Grand Prix”…others they were, well…not so good but still fun in a retro sort of way…low budget biker and hot rod films from the 50s and 60s.
Good fun and a cheap way for the network to fill a few hours.

Something similar could be done with plane films…hopefully something more rare than the commonly seen titles we all know and love (you know which ones). I have a hunch many younger people haven’t seen earlier films that got a lot of airplay in the past on TV but haven’t been seen for awhile.
“Spitfire”, “God is my Copilot” “Only Angeles have wings”, the pre-war US stuff dicussed in an earlier post, “Captain of the Clouds”, “Flight from Ashiya”, “No Highway in the Sky”, “Battle taxi” an interesting film not available on video is about rescue helicopters in Korea. The list in endless.

Also, how about some of the ancient TV shows that features aircraft. Long before “Airwolf” and “Blue Thunder” there was “Whirlybirds” about a couple of guys that operated a helicopter charter outfit. Every week they’d find a way to do something exciting…back when helicopters were a novelty (filmed in 1957-9). I’ve seen a few episodes on DVD and the series hold up rather well…decent writing, believable action…Robert Altman of “MASH” (the film not TV) directed many episodes.
It was a hit in the UK…and they were showing episodes as recently as the late 1980’s on BBC Sunday morning as part of a children’s block of programs.

And there was a TV series (1958) of Steve Canyon…based on the comic strip. I can barely recall a couple of episodes, but I’ve read they were often filmed on USAF bases and have lots of great airplane shots. Also, “The Blue Angles” was a weekly 1950-s series about the USN flying team. Somehow, they’d manage to get themselves in and out of trouble on the way to airshows….catching bank robbers and the like while flying their Grumman Cougars. I know it sounds really lame, but it would be a bit of fun to see an episode. And don’t forget “Sky King”…a wealthy rancher (and ex Navy pilot) who used his Cessna Crane (T-50, UC-78, et al) and later a new cessna 310B to do good deeds….kind of like the Lone Ranger with a twin instead of a horse.

I know purists will wince…but to be successful a network has to appeal to more views that just loyal FlyPast readers. And let me repeat…these shows would be inexpensive to broadcast…and a nice addition to the serious stuff.

An up-to-date aviation news and weather programm…

Janie’s suggestions of NOTAMs and the like would obviously be extremely useful to pilots, but terminally tedious to us ground bound viewers.

Ah! You’ve obviously never read notams. I think this idea is less likely to occur because some of the information that is available is probably best kept away from the public because it is too interesting.

Say for example, you were fortunate enough to be able to hire a Spitfire display for your own garden party. It does happen, possibly far more often than you realise. Well this display has to be notam’d. Now the last thing that the lucky hosts want is 200 enthusiastic strangers standing around the boundary of thier garden hoping to watch it. See what I mean?

Wings is apparently going to change at some point, hence the train shows starting to appear. Discovery are still commissioning new aviation shows, some of our RIAT and Legends footage is being used in a new series about pilots.

Sadly, even paying the extra to have a few digital cable channels including the US version of Discovery Wings didn’t work! It is now re-named….wait for it…..(insert fanfare here)….’THE MILITARY CHANNEL!!!!’ You can imagine what that is like.

I hope the UK version doesn’t go the same way. every time I see a military type doc on other channels (Discovery Civilisation the biggest culprit) it seems to be all about the tank war with the odd ship thrown in. At least Wings for the most part for all its faults is aviation related.

Incidentally did anyone catch Robbie Coltranes prog on superchargers? Lots of excellent footage of Spitfire TE566 and ‘109 Black 6 (sadly missed in the air) in flight.

Yes – Television will be changing in a few years. Known as ‘tripple play’. Ideal for niche channels.
I have Wings, I don’t watch it now, and I have told Sky and Discovery this to.

So many options on what to do. 30 minute progs on regional musuems across UK. In depth on Monino museum, USA museums, airshows, NATO and UN ‘assets’.
But you do need a cash cow to get going.
And I would infill with NASA TV as well.

Best of luck and I would buy in to it.

I think Wings has it right in terms of the number of hours they transmit, they just don’t add enough new programmes. TX fees are considerably less than they used to be and the new iPTV internet television systems will be launching in the next few months giving another outlet. Advertising is dead in the water apart from the major TV stations so that doesn’t work as a source of revenue so it would have to be subscription or pay per view. There’s a bit of a revolution coming in television over the next year or two and it might be a good opportunity.

At the very least I am starting a new regular aviation magazine programme that will be available on the internet and DVD.

Any form of aviation TV would be good on this side of ‘The Pond’. Up until 2002 in Canada/US we had ‘Speedvision’ which amongst cars/bikes/motor racing also had a good chunk of aviation until it was taken over by Murdochs ….ing FOX network and became NASCAR, NASCAR,NASCAR. Get the picture?
Sadly, even paying the extra to have a few digital cable channels including the US version of Discovery Wings didn’t work! It is now re-named….wait for it…..(insert fanfare here)….’THE MILITARY CHANNEL!!!!’ You can imagine what that is like.

Good luck with the channel in the UK. If it works, any chance of getting the Canadian cable tv company Alliance/Atlantis to carry it?

I had the same idea years ago. These are my observations:

The only way your going to finance such a channel is through advertising. Advertisers will only pay big bucks for high ratings. Pay per View won’t work because there aren’t many people who will pay to watch the same program repeated twenty times in six months. So it’s got to be a free to air channel available on Sky and FreeView. That’s the only way you’re going to attract enough viewers to charge advertisers enough to make the channel viable.

For this service you’d have to pay millions in TX fees. An aviation channel that broadcasts 24/7 won’t work – too expensive. So you’re looking at broadcasting from 6pm to 2am. That’s eight hours per day or 6 hours and 40 minutes when you remove promo and advert slots. You’d therefore need around 2,400 of original programming PA. Or not. If you repeated the program twice a year, then you’d only need 1,200.

Commissioning programs is out – too expensive, so you’re going to need a good program buyer. I doubt very much if there was enough quality programs out there. Another idea was to broadcast either weekends or all day Sunday – anything to reduce the number of broadcasting hours and therefore programs needed.

Good luck. Now my idea was The Documentary Channel – it says exactly what it does on the tin. This would incorporate enough [quality] programs to make it viewable.

Flying Machines will be returning to an internet near you shortly!