Charter Communications® Reveal New Plans for Spectrum® Content

Recently, Charter Communications^® revealed their plans for Spectrum^® after hiring Katherine Pope as the Senior Vice President and Head of Original Content. She joins Charter^® from Studio 8, where she previously headed their TV division. Before that, Katherine was the production executive of NBCUniversal’s Television Studios.

“We see original content as a way to further differentiate the Spectrum customer experience,” said Justin Venech, who is Charter’s Group Vice President for External Communications. “We have previously announced our co-production plans with AMC and Viacom, and we will continue to explore opportunities for the development of original content. We have no comment beyond that at this time.”

Charter Communications^® also said in the announcement of hiring Katherine Pope that she will monitor the deals the company signed with AMC Networks and Viacom for producing original content. “Katherine’s creativity, strategic prowess, and wealth of industry knowledge will play an instrumental role in positioning Charter^® as an industry leader in the creation and distribution of high-quality, original entertainment that will further differentiate Charter’s market-leading video products in ways that create value and drive subscribership,” said Senior Executive Vice President, David Ellen.

Katherine Pope will report to David Ellen and will work out of Charter’s base in Los Angeles. She has a decade-long experience of heading TV Studios of NBCUniversal, and has produced some of their top-rated series such as “Heroes”, “Houses”, and comedies like “The Office,” “Will and Grace”, and “30 Rock”. Other series she spearheaded and monitored for NBCUniversal comprise of “Battlestar Galactica” and “Friday Night Lights”.

Charter Communications^® announced the tie-up with AMC Networks in April last year. AMC Networks will coproduce executive shows for Charter Spectrum^®, and both companies are expecting the shows to premiere on the Spectrum^® brand this year. Further, as per the mutual agreement between Charter Communications^® and AMC Networks, the former would have a window to premiere the shows for U.S. audience, while the latter’s studios would get back the right to premiere after that alongside the international distribution rights.

Charter^® officials say that the original series of AMC Networks would be a different experience to the subscribers of Spectrum^® broadband because of the tons of experience Katherine Pope has in the area. However, only time will tell how the deal fares for the Telco.