'UNCENSORED' OVER THE RAINBOW

BY SHIRLEY BRADY The first cable operator to launch Rainbow Media’s Uncensored On Demand is — shock! — parent company Cablevision, which added the SVOD service last week. The edgy offering is now available for $4.95 monthly, just like the MSO’s other SVOD offerings from HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and Disney Channel. Since it was announced in May the content has been streamlined to four categories of content: religion, politics, sex and art. And instead of refreshing the entire 20-hour lineup each month, a quarter of it will be refreshed each week. A related consumer website with information on the programming and how to get the service goes live today, along with Cablevision’s marketing campaign that includes outdoor, radio spots, direct mail, cross-channel and print ads in key New York metro publications. Although produced by the Independent Film Channel arm of Rainbow Media, Uncensored is a stand-alone, exclusive-to-SVOD brand and not a vehicle for too-edgy-for-IFC-TV content. “The biggest thing we’ve been working on has been helping to define what Uncensored on Demand is,” says Cynthia Burnell, SVP and GM of IFC Digital Media. “We chose a very provocative word to call this SVOD service and people conjure up a lot of different images of what ‘uncensored’ means, so it’s been important to get feedback from cable operators and try and hone down to the crux of what the programming is all about. By culling the programming into four key categories, it helps define what the product is so people don’t jump to the conclusion that because it’s uncensored, it’s wild girls on the beach, which it’s not.” What it is: a lineup of documentaries tackling artistic, cultural, political and religious issues. Starting in January, each title will get a 3-minute-long introduction featuring artists, directors, producers and others. Intros will be made available for broadband platforms.