Newsweek, July 18, 2005

Television: 'Wayne's World' for the Rich

By Jonathan Darman

Jonathan Tisch, chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels, comes from a family more accustomed to owning national networks than turning up on cable access. But this summer he's appearing on "Open Exchange" on Long Island, N.Y.'s Channel 18, chatting with CEOs (Bear Stearns's Ace Greenberg and BMG North America's Clive Davis were recent guests) from the comfort of his own home. It's "Wayne's World" for the superrich, but Tisch likes the low visibility. "I can have the kind of conversations I'd be having if I were out to dinner with these people," he says, "only the viewer's along to eavesdrop."

Not just any viewer. "Open Exchange" broadcasts on Plum TV, the cable network that caters to the privileged folk of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, Mass.; the Hamptons in New York and Vail, Colo. This summer season is bringing in the largest audiences to date—as many as 457,000 viewers on some nights—and it hopes to boost its winter audience with a new station in Aspen, Colo. Plum woos advertisers with the quality, not the quantity, of its viewership. The network's market research shows an average Plum viewer earns $218,000 annually with household assets of $2.5 million. With advertisers like Sensient Jets, a private jet company, and the investment firm of Friedman Billings Ramsey, Plum serves a unique function: local programming for the global elite.

Plum follows a "by the rich, for the rich" philosophy. In addition to "Open Exchange," it broadcasts "Duff Talk," hosted by society figure Patricia Duff, and "Heads and Tales," a children's series with model Sophie Dahl. Wyclef Jean wrote the theme music for the morning shows. The network's founders, Tom Scott (the multimillionaire Nantucket Nectars "Juice Guy"), Cary Woods (the Hollywood producer of films like "Swingers" and "Kids") and Chris Glowacki (a former programming executive at NBC), say Plum's advertising model, which generally favors single-ad-buyer sponsorship of programming instead of traditional 30-second spots, is a more effective means of reaching consumers in a TiVo era, where "commercials" no longer exist. Advertisers like what they see. Alex Bogusky, creative director of the ad firm Crispin, Porter and Bogusky, says the network "could create a whole new model for how advertising is produced."

It isn't there yet. Currently, Plum pays cable providers to broadcast its content in all its existing markets except Aspen, and cable-industry analysts say an expansion model based on similar arrangements in new markets wouldn't work. Plum's founders, who won't say if their network makes a profit, argue that they don't want a big national footprint (though Sun Valley, Idaho, and Park City, Utah, are on the wish list) and are focused on making Plum destination TV in the places where it already broadcasts. "We want to have it so that when you go on vacation you look forward to reading the local paper, going to your favorite restaurant and watching Plum TV," says Woods. The network is wary of getting too big, too fast. After all, as any Hamptons hostess knows, too much riffraff can quickly ruin a party.