Norwegian viewers will soon have another domestic channel to choose from: on September 22 Metropol will launch in the greater Oslo area, taking over the franchise, and the local terrestrial broadcast facilities, from Nyhetskanalen (The News Channel) that went off the air, following its bankruptcy, early last year. Metropol will concentrate on documentaries, but also feature films and live entertainment will be heavily featured. The prime target group is "young urban viewers" in the 25 to 45 age group.
The aim of the Metropol management, led by Jan Erk Pedersen (formerly with TVNorge, today jointly owned by SBS and TV2 Norway) who will be both managing director and head of programming, is also to use satellite and cable distribution, and gradually expand the reach of Metro-pol to cover other main cities in Norway, such as Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger, Troms¯ and Drammen. Initially the station counts on covering some 30 per cent of the population, aiming at 50 per cent during 2002. Discussions are being held with Canal Digital for digital DTH distribution, and also with the leading Norwegian cable distributor, Telenor Avidi.
The budget for this year will be some NKr50-60 million (Pounds 4-5 million). Ad sales revenue is estimated at some NKr10 million. Breakeven should, according to Pedersen, be achieved during the course of 2002.
Negotiations towards financial and creative partnerships were held earlier this year with Finnish Alma Media group and CanadianChum TV, but both these potential investors have since withdrawn.
Instead Pedersen has named another group of main investors: two British-based parties, Alta Berkely Associates (with 28 per cent) and Sports & News Group (17 per cent); and Milan-based Mediabanco (also 17 per cent).
