December 28th, 2006 12:00am

Miami Beach's influential residents will be featured on cable-TV channel Plum.

By CHRISTINA HOAG

Miami Beach is set to join the likes of Martha's Vineyard, Vail and the Hamptons. It's going to be a Plum TV town.

The New York-based cable channel, sort of the television equivalent of a city magazine for some of the nation's most exclusive communities, is planning to launch in Miami Beach in the spring after recently raising $20 million in investment capital.

The channel, which has a carriage deal with Atlantic Broadband, will bring residents ''that insider local information that people crave,'' said Tom Scott, chief executive of Plum who formerly ran Nantucket Nectars.

''It's just amazing the things that are going on in Miami. It's that international side of Miami Beach that we're looking for,'' Scott said.

MARKET SCOPE

Plum, which rolled out two years ago, currently serves six markets with eight hours of original programming a day: Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, the Hamptons, Vail, Aspen and Telluride. Sun Valley is also on the spring launch agenda. The channel reaches about 10 million people a year.

Being resort-style enclaves of wealth, the communities often boast influential residents who are ''super-passionate about the place and tend to be pretty interesting people,'' Scott said.

They also make ideal viewers for advertisers, noted Miami media consultant Julio Rumbaut of Rumbaut & Co.

''It's another example of audience targeting,'' he said. ``It's a small audience but certainly the right audience with high discretionary income. They also certainly need to be in places outside the Beach, as well -- Boca, Coral Gables. Distribution is their challenge.''

Scott said the channel's clients are about 65 percent national advertisers and the rest local. ''Local is the fastest growing part of it,'' he said. ``Merchants see an immediate response.''

PROGRAMMING

Plum builds a studio in each community to produce local programming, such as The Morning, Noon and Night Show, a two-hour live morning program, and carries some cross-network programs such as Open Exchange, an interview program hosted by Jonathan Tisch, and Duff Talk, a talk show hosted by political consultant Patricia Duff.

Financial backers include some impressive names: singer Jimmy Buffett; Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records; Tom Freston, former head of Viacom; Barry Sternlicht, founder of Starwood Hotels, and fashionistas Andy and Kate Spade.