Online Extra: Q&A with WheelsTV's Jim Barisano and Greg Willis

Cable World, Feb 7, 2005

An expanded interview with executives from start-up network WheelsTV. By Shirley Brady

Jim Barisano drives a Chevy Tahoe with a single pinstripe. The chairman of WheelsTV also knows cars back to front, and helped his father by restoring engines and changing oil in the trucks belonging to his family's contracting business. Today, he's hoping to help cable operators make video on demand and broadband become the engines for digital cable's growth. Even though his Acton, Mass.-based network for car and truck enthusiasts (or "lifestylers," as he calls them) and car browsers doesn't launch until midyear, his programming launched last fall on Comcast's Select On Demand offering. As Barisano and WheelsTV EVP of affiliate sales and marketing Greg Willis tell CableWORLD, that's just the beginning of what the network can offer operators.

CableWORLD: What makes your network stand out from the other start-ups out there?

Jim Barisano: WheelsTV, because it's a new network, is really a new way of looking at television. It's a bundle of services that cross the various media. At the core it's a linear network, WheelsTV, that will be launching in mid-'05. But beyond that, we have the VOD product that is already out there, and broadband products as well. So that bundle of services, from a content side, mimics what the various programmer distributors are doing in terms of cable and satellite and broadband content. That's the nice thing about being a new network--we're really future-proofed. We're looking down the road at various distribution channels and providing services within those channels.

CW: So WheelsTV programming is currently available under the "wheels and wings" category of Comcast's Select On Demand offering, even though the linear network hasn't yet launched?

Greg Willis: Yes, we are very involved in that. So if you go to that category today in New Jersey or Boston or Chicago or Detroit, you will see WheelsTV-branded content with third-party advertising.

Barisano: It's a terrific service. I have Comcast at home and I enjoy all of their VOD products, as well as the new Select On Demand programming. They have a tremendous interest in maximizing the value to the consumer of VOD, and it's an exciting time to be in the business.

CW: Is this content exclusively licensed to Comcast for VOD?

Willis: We're talking to all the major distributors about their on-demand needs. Our discussions range from programming to marketing to ad sales and, most importantly, the system general manager's marketing and ad sales people as well. Because this is a service, where particularly on the local level, there's a lot of buy-in because this is a category where there's such passion, whether you're an enthusiast or a lifestyler or even a daily consumer looking to buy a new vehicle. And this is such a part of systems' local business in terms of advertising and sponsorship, that there is a lot of interest and buy-in. We're also talking to the broadband groups within various operators to discuss their needs.

Barisano: That's why we present the network as a bundle, with those three key elements: linear, VOD and broadband. So it means we end up talking with a number of people within the same building.

CW: How does The Top 200 virtual test-drive series fit into this cross- platform strategy?

Barisano: What's really exciting about The Top 200 is it really is the point of the spear for us. The Top 200 would start out as the unveiling of a vehicle at the L.A. auto show, so when the Chevy 5 Cobalt coupe was introduced, we will immediately have it on the network as news. And then it immediately goes in the Top 200 magazine format that will appear on a weekly basis. So The Top 200 show in that particular week would feature coupes--the Chevy Cobalt, the Ford Focus, the Mazda Three, the Honda Civic, the Toyota Corolla--and we'd profile and compare those vehicles. At the same time, The Top 200 would appear on VOD, where you would see a three-to-five-minute vehicle profile with Edmunds.com data integrated into the profile. So if you're considering purchasing this car, or you're just curious and just interested in what's coming out in the marketplace, you would go into our VOD service or broadband and watch the story on the Cobalt with key Edmunds.com data integrated--prices, the EPA fuel economy, horsepower, braking, acceleration, safety features such as side airbags, approved head restraints--plus other nice Edmunds' features such as "true cost to own" and market value pricing. These days car-buyers typically go online and see these nice photographs and check out data. But The Top 200 creates a unique broadband video experience: You can get behind the wheel, see the car go zooming by, check out the safety features and really get a sense of "is this the car for me?". So Top 200 is really the next step in the car shopping experience, and is really integrated into the three platforms: the linear network, VOD and broadband.