World News Korner

The Sportsman Channel is making move to expand its brand, attract new advertisers, and using Sarah Palin to help facilitate that. Good luck with that.

After posting yesterday about Palin's rare press outing, and the aggressive pimping of her new soon to be cancelled show "Amazing America," I started to receive numerous links that suggest the Sportsman channel is really hoping to hit the big time using Palin to attract media attention.

First there is this from a PR Newswire story in May:

InterMedia Outdoors, Inc. (IMO), the industry leader and largest provider of Outdoors content, and parent company of The Sportsman Channel (TSC), today announced that it chose not to renew its programming agreements with The Outdoor Channel (TOC), in order to shift its highly-rated and award-winning television shows to The Sportsman Channel. IMO will also increase its commitment of resources to TSC, integrating new and upgraded programming and content from IMO's vast market-leading properties, which extend across print, television, radio and online mediums.

"We are going to build The Sportsman Channel into the leading outdoor network, both in distribution and ratings, and shifting all of our programming to TSC is a major first step in that direction. We have led in every Outdoors category we have entered-magazine, internet, and television production-and now we will lead in networks," says InterMedia Outdoors CEO Jeff Paro. "No other channel in the Outdoors category has ever had this kind of promotional strength behind it. We will actively and aggressively program TSC with hunting, shooting and fishing content, with a focus on high-quality original programming, production of our own shows, and partnerships with producers. TSC will be a better network for the consumer and a better value for the distributor."

So that was the plan about seven or eight months ago, and then this weekend those plans seem to have come to a head. A head with a giant ugly wig sitting on it.

Back in March they also decided to aggressively pursue more mainstream advertisers:

Effective Monday, the Sportsman Channel aims for advertisers beyond its roots — “hook and bullet advertisers” — to larger and more mainstream companies that covet the audience for shows like Steven Rinella’s “MeatEater” and Patrick Flanigan’s “Shell Shocked!”

And who have they been able to sign up with this new focus thus far? Well they hooked this big fish for one:

Cheaper than Dirt!, America’s Ultimate Shooting Sports Discounter, has signed three significant advertising deals with Sportsman Channel for 2014.

Cheaper than Dirt will be airing commercials spots on Sportsman through the following platforms: renowned series “Meet the McMillans,” the “Armed Citizen File” on NRANEWS Cam & Co., and a full-year of various advertising on the network throughout 2014.

Who Nelly! Now THAT'S impressive!

But did Palin bring anything new to the table?

Well possibly,

Courtesy of ABC News:

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race will again have a presence on national television after race organizers signed a deal with the Sportsman Channel.

The agreement, announced Wednesday, makes the Sportsman Channel the official network of the nearly 1,000-mile race from Anchorage to Nome. The race, billed as the world's longest, hasn't had a network deal since 2009.

No definitive proof that Palin helped to broker this deal, but if not it would be an awfully big coincidence. And who is it again that does not believe in coincidences?

All I can say is that if the Sportsman channel thinks having Palin on board is the key to long term success they might have done themselves a favor by checking with John McCain and the Tea Party first.

Speaking of Palin she might want to watch herself as hosts of the Sportsman channels programs sometimes meet a violent end.

Stay low Sarah. What am I saying, there are very few people lower than Sarah Palin.

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