Macias
believes that here!’s acknowledgement of the
diversity of the gay community is critical to its success. “Being
aware of the fact that the gay community is not monolithic is
part of addressing the problem. You have to be aware of your
challenges or they roll over you when you’re not looking.”
So
far, Gelfand says he hasn’t encountered
any resistance in trying to place advertising for the channel
in non-gay publications and television outlets. “I haven’t
had a single negative response from non-gay companies about
marketing the channel. There’s been a seismic change even
in the last few years.”
Getting
the mainstream press to cover the channel was a little more
difficult at first--it launched a year ago, but it's only recently
that most people have learned about it. “In the beginning,
it was a struggle,” says Colichman, “but now it’s
becoming more routine for the mainstream press to write about
us. A lot of them are covering Too Cool for Christmas,
for example; it’s being covered along with all the other
holiday movies. Just to be treated as an equal is a huge success.”
Gelfand
attributes the growing press attention to here! ’s increased
investment in developing its own original productions in the
last year. “When you’re spending millions of dollars
to produce your own content, and hiring a lot of people,”
says Gelfand, “it signals a serious investment. So that’s
given us a boost in the mainstream press.” Macias sees
a similar change. “here! is being covered now like a legitimate
business, whereas we weren’t when we were new.”
All
agree that a channel like this would not have been
possible even a few years ago “for both technological
and cultural reasons,” says Colichman, citing the improvements
in video-on-demand technology as a key development in making
the channel possible.“You have to have distribution to
succeed,” explains Gelfand, “and the cable industry—the
Comcasts and DirectTVs--wasn’t ready for this a few years
ago. I don’t think they understood the viability and power
of the gay community, or they were hesitant that there was going
to be a backlash.
"When
you see Bravo not only isn't suffering from running Queer
Eye, but it's increasing their revenue, they realize the
world isn’t going to come to an end. And that’s
been a big shift.”
here! is currently in a little over 30 million homes now, and Colichman’s
goal is to be in 50 million homes in three years, so it's no
surprise that he currently values growth over profitability.
“The channel is paying for itself, except that I keep
growing it,” he said. “It’s a constant growth
and re-marketing process since we’re trying to add so
many subscribers.”
Colichman
has learned a few things along the way. “Nothing’s
easy, and everything that looks easy isn’t,” he
says. “Each of us has a chance to define our own life
and our own reality, to some extent. Is it growth or struggle?
It’s how we frame it. So what I’ve learned is to
never define your life as a struggle. Everything that felt like
a struggle was your growth; that was your good news. The bad
news is if you choose to define your life by its negatives.”
This
philosophy feeds Colichman’s vision for the channel, as
well. “I’m not defining our community by its struggles.
I’m defining it by its celebrations. here! is a celebration
of all we’ve accomplished. There’s always more work
to be done, but celebrate every day of victory. Any time someone
can turn on their TV at home and see themselves portrayed in
a relatable way, without advertisers telling us what we should
look like, it’s a celebration.”
For
more details and subscription information, go to heretv.com
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