Directv Raises its Sights for a Channel

[Zoneboy]

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The satellite television service DirecTV, mostly known as a place to see a lot of N.F.L. football, has a secret dream: it wants to be HBO.


Or at least the service would like to create a new premium network with HBO-like programming for its subscribers. DirecTV plans to turn its 101 Network channel, which previously showed the soap opera “Passions” and a game show featuring the singer Meat Loaf, into a home for more ambitious programs.

The headline attraction so far has been first-run episodes of the NBC drama “Friday Night Lights,” which played on DirecTV last fall before recently beginning their run on NBC.

But starting this month, the network added a cult classic, “Wonderland,” a psychiatric hospital drama tried by ABC in 2000 that won HBO-like reviews but lasted just two episodes. The unseen six completed episodes will begin running on DirecTV Wednesday night.

That is apparently only the start of the satellite company’s programming plans. Eric Shanks, the executive vice president for entertainment of DirecTV, said Friday that he had deals to acquire three more series that had previously played only on premium channels like HBO and Showtime. (The only one he could announce was the two-season, Emmy-nominated Showtime drama “Sleeper Cell.”)

The idea, Mr. Shanks said, is to add shows that have previously been available only to premium subscribers. “We’d like to become a pre-cable window for those premium channels,” he said, meaning that HBO, for example, might sell a series like “Sex and the City” to DirecTV before selling it to a basic cable channel like TBS.

Beyond the deals for premium network shows, Mr. Shanks said that DirecTV, which has 17 million subscribers, has also acquired repeats of a long-running Canadian comedy series, “Trailer Park Boys.” In addition, Mr. Shanks said, “I am also going to pitch an idea for a spinoff of a popular series that just ended.” He said he could not yet name the show.

And Mr. Shanks said DirecTV is seeking to produce other original material, starting with eight television movies that will serve as pilots for potential series.

Peter Berg, the creator of both “Friday Night Lights” and “Wonderland,” said his experience with DirecTV had been so positive that “we’re trying to own the programming on the 101 Network — we’d like to keep doing shows for DirecTV.”

The deal for “Friday Night Lights” — NBC and DirecTV shared the costs, though the terms have not been disclosed — saved that series from cancellation. That led to Mr. Berg’s asking Mr. Shanks if he would take a look at “Wonderland,” which had languished in a vault at the Walt Disney Company, ABC’s parent.

“It was a completely unrealized asset,” Mr. Berg said. And also one close to his heart. He wrote and directed the pilot, which was based on his personal research at Bellevue Hospital. ABC put the series on, but scheduled it against “E.R.” at the height of that show’s popularity.

That, and the show’s intensity, doomed it quickly, before episodes with guest stars like Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Piven could get on the air. Mr. Berg said he would like to put the show back into production. “If there’s an appetite for the show to come back, we’ll bring it back,” he said. Such a deal probably would necessitate the same kind of creative deal-making that went into keeping “Friday Night Lights” alive. Mr. Shanks conceded that DirecTV was not ready to pay the full cost of a drama like “Wonderland” — about $2 million an episode.

Even before “Friday Night Lights,” Mr. Shanks had tried to acquire new episodes of another much-loved but low-rated network series, “Arrested Development,” when that show was canceled by Fox in 2006. That deal fell through when Showtime began talks to acquire the show. Those negotiations did not result in a deal.

Brian Grazer, whose Imagine Entertainment produced “Arrested Development” as well as “Friday Night Lights” and “Wonderland,” said in a telephone interview: “I look at what happened with Comedy Central. They had one show and then suddenly they became a real factor. I could absolutely see us doing original shows for DirecTV. I believe it’s a real network.”