US TV boost for UK’s first City of Culture

EVENTS during Londonderry’s year as the first ever UK City Culture may be broadcast into 35 million homes across the cable network in the United States, the Sentinel can reveal.

A deal is close to being finalised by one of the US’s biggest media magnates to launch a new ‘Ireland Today’ channel and as well as holding top level meetings in Belfast and Dublin, including discussions at the Assembly and the Dail, Frederick Thomas held a private meeting with representatives of Londonderry’s Culture Company on Saturday.

Mr Thomas’s MHZ Network has introduced more international TV to the USA than all other networks combined. The company he established provides channels such as NHK World TV, Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle, France 24, SABC, RAI, FujiSankei, France 2, IBA, RTVE, CCTV, TVE, Russia Today, B92 and ANI.

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He was brought to Londonderry by former Waterside man and ambassador for the city, Tony Culley-Foster who also attended all of last week’s meetings.

The project could help the Culture Company achieve its aim of reaching the diaspora in the USA, and could also help boost tourism.

Mr Culley-Foster said: “We both feel that there is a tremendous opportunity for the right Irish based independent television production company to deliver quality television programming to a large and currently underserved Anglo-Irish-American audience throughout the United States.”

Such a private sector company is being established in Belfast and the two men held crunch meetings last week to advance the negotiations on an “exclusive Content Distribution Agreement (CDA) for the American market”. Details of the make-up of the private company are being kept under wraps for now.

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Mr Thomas told the Culture Company delegation that they “would be pushing at an open door” if they could provide quality content for broadcast on the Ireland - Today channel, which he hopes will be launched in mid-March, just ahead of the St Patrick’s day celebrations.

The two men said that under normal circumstances their itinerary would only have taken them to Belfast and Dublin, where they met top government representatives as well as private sector interests and TV production experts.

But because of Mr Culley-Foster’s love for the city, and its historic place as the first UK City of Culture, they wanted to offer the Culture Company an opportunity to get free access to a potential 35m homes across the United States.

When the channel is launched - and perhaps even before that - the Culture Company will be able to provide film footage which will be assessed to see if it measures up to the quality necessary to meet MHZ standards. If so, it will be sent on to the USA for broadcast.

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However Mr Thomas and Mr Culley-Foster viewed the short film featuring the Snow Patrol song, Just Say Yes, which formed part of the successful bid to win the City of Culture award, and said they did not think meeting the quality standard would be a problem. They stressed that they want to see material that reflects the “contemporaneous city”.

Mr Thomas told the Sentinel he believes Ireland as a whole is “a well kept secret” and that he believes people want to see the transformation that has happened here.

He said: “This city is a success story that needs to be broadcast as a success story, as a winner.”

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