APTN National News
WINNIPEG—Aboriginal Peoples Television Network will know in six to nine months whether it can launch a sister station in the United States, according to the network’s CEO.
APTN CEO Jean Larose said the network has partnered with global consulting firm Castalia to determine whether there is enough interest among U.S. cable and satellite television service providers to carry the proposed channel.
Larose said meetings with cable and satellite providers are ongoing, according to an email sent to APTN employees Wednesday morning.
“APTN is quite excited at the possibility of launching a sister station in the US based on the programming and community focus of service in Canada. The initial response from Native American producers, organizations and artists has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive,” said Larose, in a statement provided to APTN National News. “However, we must first ensure that there will be sufficient revenues to fully cover the costs of such a channel and in order to determine this, we have partnered with Castalia to do this research on our behalf.”
Larose said it could take between six to nine months to determine whether there is enough interest to launch the channel. APTN wants to first ensure that it has enough signed commitments for carriage before making the new channel a reality, he said.
“We have no idea yet if there will be interest…to launch a service like ours in the States. However, the only way to find out is to start a public discussion,” said Larose in the email.
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