Who says education can’t be entertaining? Certainly not CHUM. Indeed, as the driving force behind Canadian Learning Television, a new educational specialty channel set to launch in September, this Toronto-based broadcaster plans to apply the very same tricks of the trade that have helped turn the likes of MuchMusic and Bravo! into successful services.
‘Our approach is to be to education what Much is to music,’ says Daniel Brainin, director of sales and sponsorship for CLT.
CLT’s tagline is ‘Television that Teaches.’ The mandate: to deliver educational programming for adults who are interested in improving their level of education or upgrading their knowledge base and skills. The channel will work with educational institutions, trade and professional associations and others to provide offerings geared toward academic or professional accreditation and skills training, as well as basic adult education.
CLT is currently in the process of developing partnerships with a number of educational institutions.
The station description may call to mind the sort of shoestring-budget affair so adeptly parodied by SCTV’s Sunrise Semester. But Brainin says the station will have a look and feel similar to those of CHUM’s other specialty services: vibrant, high-energy and contemporary.
While CLT will, for example, offer on-air courses for credit, the programming connected with these will consist of much more than just videotaped university lectures. Instead, Brainin explains, the channel will air documentary series and other programs that present course-related information in a manner compelling to viewers.
Canadian Learning Television is this country’s first-ever nationwide educational television service. Still, CHUM does have some experience with this particular broadcast model on a regional basis.
Four years, ago, the company acquired Alberta’s Access – The Education Station. As owner, CHUM promptly ushered in a number of changes reflecting the general approach that it takes to all of its television properties.
For example, Access introduced two new interactive programs devoted to career development – Learning & Jobs News and HelpTV. Both are shot in the funky, free-flowing style familiar to regular viewers of MuchMusic or CHUM-produced shows such as FashionTelevision.
Research commissioned by CHUM indicates that approximately 80% of Canadians want to improve their level of education and upgrade their knowledge and skills. The study, conducted by Environics Research Group, also showed that Canadians are quite open to the notion of television as a tool for self-improvement.
Selling advertisers on the merits of the CLT concept, however, may be more of a challenge, Brainin says.
‘There’s a knee-jerk reflex that educational broadcasting is like hot milk – it’s good for you, but not very exciting,’ he says.
In point of fact, Brainin argues, an education station makes sense for a wide variety of advertisers, from fast-food chains to automobile manufacturers – anyone interested in reaching adult learners.
In addition to the opportunity to sponsor programming and programming blocks, CLT is offering to develop half-hour programs tailor-made for specific advertisers.
While the concept may sound suspiciously like an infomercial, Brainin says emphatically that the content will not stray into the area of brand selling. Rather, the programs will be informational in nature, focusing on issues to which the advertiser in question bears some relevance. Any brand messages will be confined to commercial breaks.
It’s a fine line to walk, Brainin concedes. But Access has been making the same opportunity available to advertisers for some time now, with considerable success.
The station has, for example, produced a half-hour show on the entrepreneurial spirit for insurance provider Liberty Health. The program did put some focus on insurance – but only as one of several issues that people must deal with when building their own business.
‘We will bring to the table some sort of editorial line,’ Brainin says.
While distribution for CLT is still being hammered out with the cable companies, Brainin says the service will be available in at least one million Canadian households.
Advertising for the new channel is currently airing on CHUM radio and television stations. Print support will appear once solid distribution arrangements are in place.
Also in this report:
– The future is now: With digital cable on the horizon, Canadian specialty services are having to prepare for competition the likes of which they’ve never seen before p.B2
– Uncertainty clouds Quebec’s specialty decision: CBC appealing CRTC decision to award licences to four new French-language services p.B5
– Star! to bring Hollywood north: New entertainment channel promises to put Canadian spin on celebrity stories p.B15
