TNN Rebrands Itself Spike TV (Cable for Manly Men!)

Mediaweek.com ^ | April 15, 2003

[Timesink]

TNN Rebrands Itself Spike TV

APRIL 15, 2003 -

TNN: The National Network will become Spike TV on June 16 and will be repositioned as the first network targeting men.

"Today the first network for men has a name, and it's Spike TV," said Albie Hecht, president of TNN. "Spike TV captures the attributes and essence of what we want the first network for men to be. It's unapologetically male; it's active; it's smart and contemporary with a personality that's aggressive and irreverent. This is a first major step in our journey to super-serving men in a way no one has done before."

The network's new logo will be unveiled at the MTV Networks upfront presentation in New York City on Tuesday, May 6.

During a conference call, Hecht announced the network's first slate of male-skewing programming, which includes partnerships with Men's Health magazine and CBS MarketWatch.

The re-naming of the channel will be supported by a multi-million dollar awareness campaign that will include on-air, outdoor and print advertising.

Spike TV will be available in 86 million homes.

[I still care]

I won't even let my kids watch the commercials from this channel. It really is sick.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Yeah. The least they could do is show the REAL Star Trek, featuring hard-lovin', hard-fightin' Captain James T. Kirk.

Got that right. Unlike (Frenchman) Jean-Luc Picard, Kirk didn't have a habit of surrendering the ship whenever trouble showed up.

[Ferret Fawcet]

Ditto to that! I've recently "discovered" The Duke and want to see all of his movies before I die. I think he's just dreamy, but I don't dare tell my husband that! Thank goodness for TCM and the Western channel.

[Extremist]

Maybe the Lifetime Network will be re-named the DYKE Network!

[ErnBatavia]

[dogbyte12]

Take that mouse network!

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Yep, Spike TV definitely sounds "gay".

[BobinIL]

It looks like giving all of the country music shows, hunting, shooting and fishing shows the boot isn't panning out very well. So what do they do, go even further the oposite direction from what TNN was in the first place. Thank god I get OLN and the outdoors channel on my sattelite.

[Pete'sWife]

Ugh

Can "Butch TV" be far behind?

[vollmond]

These days, sattelite companies are looking for anyone to create a niche channel to add to their feed. I propose "The Hee-Haw Channel", 24 hours of Hee-Haw reruns, with the occasional new episode.

"If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all."

[Mr. Thorne]

Damn Straight!

Kirk kicked a$$. Unrealistically, but still...

[Mr. Thorne]

Tell him! He'll love you all the more for it.

My wife's personal fave right now is Sam Elliot, but she'll watch the Duke any time.

[chasio649]

hehehe :P

[ihatemyalarmclock]

TNN is reinventing itself again. Time to change the oil in my car!

[jimt]

They'd better dump the flashing, violent commercials and the stupid banners running during shows if they want me to watch.

I used to watch Star Trek TNJ but the damn flashing commercials gave me headaches and their idiot banners drove me nuts.

[gcruse]

They have some sort of identity crisis over there.

BET should have become TNN, obviously.

[John Locke]

Hey, I like Spike! He's a cool guy ...

... room temperature cool. Which is what this new TV channel will be about 3 months after launch.

[sinkspur]

I should add that I no longer get to see PBR because of these idiots.

It's on the Outdoor Network, but not everybody gets the OLN.

This wrecks this network, AFAIC.

[stainlessbanner]

I'm with you friend, they have destroyed it. Some big suit exec just had to put his mark on an already good thing. Some folks can't leave well enough alone.

[stainlessbanner]

All HeeHaw, All The Time