Rainbow Hopes Viewers Pick ‘World Picks’

Rainbow Media Holdings Inc. is introducing four new foreign-language on-demand services and a suite of digital international services.

Grouped as "World Picks," the services are positioned to help operators better serve diverse ethnic communities, according to Cynthia Burnell, senior vice president and general manager of digital media for Rainbow’s IFC Cos.

Four World Picks On Demand subscription-video-on-demand services -- Hindi On Demand, Latino On Demand, Mandarin On Demand and Russian On Demand -- will each offer 20 hours of international programming per month, including movies, music performances, series, religious and spiritual programs, children’s shows, documentaries and language instruction.

Content is 100% refreshed every 30 days.

The World Picks Networks include 13 foreign-language linear channels imported from various countries, including Maria Vision (Mexico), Canal (a) (Argentina), Zona Latina (Chile), CCTV-4 (China), Mee TV (India) and Romanian TV (Romania).

The revenue split would be 50-50 on SVOD sales, with retail rates to be negotiated system by system or MSO by MSO.

For more on World Picks, please see R. Thomas Umstead’s story on page 8 of Monday’s edition of Multichannel News.

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.