Outdoor Channel to rebrand, use new logo – The Hollywood Reporter
Matthew Harrington The Outdoor Channel is losing the moose and its definite article, as part of a corporate rebranding campaign that will be unveiled later this week.
Beginning Thursday, the network will be known simply as Outdoor Channel, a paring down that is echoed in its new logo, which features two abstracted mountaintops and a simple green-and-black color scheme.
The channel’s former logo was a much more literal-minded evocation of the brand, featuring a moose against a backdrop of pine trees and evening sky.
The rebranding is designed to convey “the sense of action, adventure and excitement inherent in our programming,” said Outdoor Channel senior vp, marketing and research Denise Conroy-Galley. “In addition, it reflects our desire to own the outdoor entertainment space on multiple platforms, including standard and high-definition television, video-on-demand and our cutting-edge, soon-to-debut broadband channel.”
In a conference call with investors last week, Outdoor Channel Holdings CEO Roger Werner said that in a bid to grow its subscriber base, the channel would reduce affiliate fees to below five cents per subscriber, effective for the first three-to-four years of any new five-to-seven-year deals he executes.
While working toward growing his sub count, Werner also plans to increase Outdoor’s advertising rates. Werner said that in some cases, advertisers have already agreed to CPM increases between 20 and 40%.
Outdoor Channel ad sales in 2006 jumped 12.8% to $25.7 million, while affiliate fees were up 14.6% to $17.7 million.
According to the latest Nielsen Media Research estimates, Outdoor is now in approximately 30 million U.S. households.
