Up TV specializes in positive content in an era that can feel pretty negative. “We Get Family,” goes its tagline, and Amy Winter, executive vice president and general manager, believes families will still watch together, if the content is right, at a time when kids increasingly disappear to their rooms, iPad in hand, to watch their own stuff.

Up TV, part of InterMedia Partners, is a true independent. Its shows are a mix of unscripted homegrown series, such as Bringing Up Bates and Expecting, and scripted off-network stuff, such as Parenthood and Gilmore Girls.

Winter came on board at Up TV in 2015 after a long run at TLC. She spoke with Multichannel News about the challenge of being independent in the age of scale, and why America is seeking out more positive television right now. An edited transcript follows.

MCN: You reached 100 episodes for Bringing Up Bates. Why is the Bates family attractive to viewers?
Amy Winter: They check so many boxes for TV entertainment in general and then specifically our brand. It’s 19 kids — there are kids of all ages going through a lot of different stages of life. We’ve got the older ones starting relationships, starting their own families. The younger ones are there for entertainment. That has been really the heart of the entertainment factor but I think what people keep coming back for is, they’re just a good family. They’re very funny and they give each other a hard time. In their hearts, in the way they live their lives, they’re people you can feel good for watching.

MCN: Any new shows that might battle Bringing Up Bates for ratings primacy?
AW: I’m very excited about the new night of content that we’re rolling out on Fridays. We’re calling it Life’s Biggest Moments. We’re starting with our baby shows — Expecting started [April 6] — we had a very encouraging start to the series. That follows the journey to parenthood. It is all self-shot [cast members do their own camera work], so it is remarkably intimate. We’ll move on to weddings in June, which we’re very excited about.

MCN: Is Up’s positive message a good thing right now in this country?
AW: It’s absolutely what sets us apart from the television landscape. Up’s positivity and uplifting content is being sought after specifically by the audience we’re talking to. We just completed the fourth phase of a study where we have identified an audience called Family in Mind. The No. 1 driver of what they want to see on television and what they’re not seeing enough of are shows they can share with family. What they want to share is positivity. What they want to do is collect everybody and sit down and watch together. I think we’re seeing proof of our promise to viewers. We’re always in the top 10 most co-viewed networks.

MCN: Do families still want to watch TV together?
AW: I believe so. The content mix that we do, we’re trying to entertain adults first. We hold our shows to that standard. We want to have you and your partner come to the set and watch together. But we’re also putting out shows that you can feel good about watching as an entire family. We are definitely seeing that happen as we engage with viewers.

MCN: Up does not have its own scripted series?
AW: There are no scripted shows currently planned but we do scripted movies. We focus most of them during the holiday time frame. Christmas is a big season for us — we’ll have seven original movies during that time.

MCN: Tell me about Up’s new streaming service.
AW: Up Faith & Family is our streaming service. It’s available on a number of different providers. Amazon has something like 200 channels and Up Faith & Family has cracked the top five on that service. We’re also rolling out direct-to-consumer and a number of other places as well.

MCN: What is it like as an independent network these days? Is it challenging?
AW: It’s challenging as an independent but it also energizes our team to be smarter and scrappier than anybody else. We find that we can go out and make relationships with some of the other independents out there. It really just energizes us to think a little bit differently than everybody else who’s in the portfolio game.

The traditional one-hour family drama genre, once a staple of primetime TV lineups but in recent years pushed to the backburner by darker, more provocative drama projects, is once again beginning to find its footing with the recent success of two freshman series.

Hallmark Channel’s Chesapeake Shores finished its inaugural campaign last month as the most-watched original scripted series in the network’s history, while broadcaster NBC’s This Is Us has launched this past September as one of the most watched new series of the 2016-17 television season.

TUGGING AT HEARTS

The two shows, with their heart-tugging optimism and relationship-themed plotlines, are going against the grain of today’s most popular scripted series which offer a darker, more sinister and pessimistic view of human nature. Nevertheless, the shows are tapping into an underserved audience of both older and surprisingly young viewers looking for more positive and uplifting programming options, programming executives said.

“There are a lot of great television shows out there but many are darker and edgier and have a supernatural twist,” Hallmark Channel executive vice president of programming Michelle Vicary said. “That’s a great television experience on other networks, but we found that there’s an audience for family dramas, if you do it right.”

Hallmark’s multigenerational family drama Chesapeake Shores, based on a novel series by Sherryl Woods, averaged 2.7 million viewers on a Nielsen live-plus-3 basis during its 10- episode run that ended last month, making it the most-watched original scripted series in network history.

Chesapeake Shores also finished as one of Hallmark Channel’s youngestskewing series, drawing more 18-49 year old female viewers than its other scripted content. Vicary attributed that youth appeal to the strength of Woods’s book franchise, as well as the well-written characters and storylines.

“Chesapeake Shores has proven to us that there is a bigger audience across the board for family dramas than one might think,” she said.

This Is Us, which follows a family of three kids — two siblings and an adopted child with the same birthday — throughout their childhood and adult lives, is arguably the surprise hit of the new television season. Through five episodes, its installments have posted the five highest ratings number among all telecasts of the Big Four networks’ 10 first-year dramas so far this season, according to network officials. The Oct. 25 episode averaged a season-high 8.7 million viewers.

Amy Winter, executive vice president and general manager of family-targeted network UP, believes that the success of This Is Us shows there is an audience yearning for more family dramas.

UP, which this past summer rebranded its service to focus on family-themed programming and acquired the rights to such family-themed dramas as Parenthood, will debut in 2017 its own one-hour family drama, Date My Dad, about three daughters who look to support their widowed father by searching for a companion for him.

“While they do have a certain soapiness to them, I would say that some of the stickiest plotlines that you ever see out there do relate to love and family and relationships that exist within the family,” Winter said. “Usually at the center of those dramas are people that feel like family to you, and you want to root for, and you end up picking your favorites.”

CO-VIEWING APPEAL

Winter also said that the family-drama genre appeals to viewers at the older end of the millennial demographic, age 25-34, who are settling down with families and seeking programming they can identify with to watch along with their kids.

“Some of these noisier, darker high-concept shows are definitely in the zeitgeist right now, but shows like This Is Us are proof that when you have quality storytelling, word of mouth will travel and people will come to it,” Winter said. “There’s also a misperception that the cooler, edgier and darker you go, the more you capture the younger side of this audience, but the quality storytelling in these one-hour dramas goes beyond something that might be more gimmicky.”

UP TV has named ex-Discovery Communications executive Amy Winter as its executive vice president and general manager.

In the newly created position, Winter will oversee programming and brand development for the 10-year-old network, inclusive of development and production of series and movies, said network officials. Winter has been consulting at UP (formerly Aspire) since May 2014 and oversaw a new on-air look and branding. She also greenlit two new UP original series, the reality show Bringing Up Bates and Ties that Bind, the network's first scripted series, currently in pre-production, the network said. 

Winter, who will report to Charley Humbard, president and CEO of UP, will also be responsible for scheduling and acquisitions, marketing and public relations, and digital and social media properties.

Winter’s appointment follows the October departure of former UP vice chairman Brad Siegel, who in December was named president of TV One.

Winter formerly served as executive vice president and general manager of TLC, where she led the general entertainment network to a record 32 series averaging one million viewers or more.

"Amy Winter is a one of a kind media executive … she combines an intuitive sensibility for understanding what viewers like to watch and how to communicate with them, with a strategic operational discipline for focusing on what drives ratings and revenue,” said Humbard. “Amy is the right person to lead our content and marketing areas and to further shape our distinct brand identity which promises to always uplift you and your family.”