Outside magazine and Resort Sports Network announce partnership

Mariah Media, publishers of Outside magazine, announced a partnership with Resort Sports Network (RSN) this week to bring Outside’s content to television.

According to a prepared statement from Mariah Media, the rebranded network will debut as the Outside Television Network on June 1, 2010. Outside Television’s content will bring many of Outside’s popular reports to the small screen, such as Best Towns, Best Jobs, Trips of the Year, Best Gear and the Outside Buyer’s Guide, and Master Plans for Health, Fitness, and Nutrition, along with other feature stories appropriate to television.

In the course of a company conference call on Wednesday, President Jeff Dumais introduced the partnership to RSN affiliates saying that the merger offers RSN a more broadly-recognized brand, will stimulate new programming with a broader appeal and will help RSN with marketing and sales expertise. While risks are inherent in any new venture, Dumais said that RSN was excited by the opportunity. “If you’re going to move forward, you can’t keep your foot on first base.”

“Outside is the most iconic and revered brand in the active-lifestyle space. It is an amazing opportunity to collaborate on content and translate the brand into television. There is a great fit between the companies on so many levels, and we couldn’t be more excited about the deal,” said Mark A. Burchill, CEO of RSN.

Resort Sports Network distributes programming through a network of owned and operated and affiliated stations, each with a dedicated 24-hour local cable channel. According to Dumais, “What’s really quite appealing about [RSN] is that it’s a combination of national content and compelling, unique, and hard-to-get local content… That is a model that most national cable networks don’t have anything close to and that, frankly, most national broadcasters are working harder to embrace. ”

RSN currently reaches 61 million viewers annually, is distributed to 110 destinations, and is the number-one-rated channel in its markets as measured by Nielsen Media Research. RSN content is broadcast locally on Channel 63.

RSN producer Drew Simmons praised the joint venture as a marriage complementing the strengths of both parties. RSN, he says, has been strong in operations but relatively weak in brand recognition, while Outside will gain access to television viewers in destination markets.

If you live in an RSN town – Park City, Vail, Crested Butte, Sugarloaf or others – you know what I’m talking about. RSN has raised the quality of the local channel to previously unheard of levels. They didn’t do it by imitating the low budget small market content of places like Idaho Falls and Burlington. They did it by creating their own version of wicked outdoorsy television: snow reports in the morning, eye candy during après ski, mellow movies at night, and nothing at all between 10 am and 3 pm when everybody’s outside doing something fun.

And if you advertised on RSN in the last 10 years – you also know the secret: that TV exposure on RSN delivers a ridiculous value. It’s targeted and constant, constant, constant, and though it costs far more than a print ad… it’s far, far less than playing in the big pool of TV anywhere else.

Channel 63

Channel 63 in Salida and Buena Vista has been an RSN affiliate since its inception in July 2008.

Founder and Station Manager Sam Bricker, who recently launched a second RSN affiliate station on Channel 8 in Pagosa Springs and is in negotiations for a similar venture in Taos, sees the transition from RSN to Outside Television as unequivocally positive for his business, viewers and local advertisers. Local advertisers in particular will benefit from the wider brand recognition and additional content that Outside will bring to the table.

In a way, the shift in emphasis from sports to lifestyle augured by the move to Outside Television is a case of branding catching up with programming. “RSN already has a really good mix of content which is not necessarily related to resorts,” says Bricker.

In addition to national and regional programming, Channel 63 viewers can currently see amateur meteorologist PT Wood star in weather reports for southwest Colorado while Laura Donavan aka “Coco” periodically plays host to a morning variety show. Moving forward, Bricker expects to be able to expand local programming to include more in the way of sports, dining, music and local news.

Bricker, who grew up in the San Luis Valley, sold rice krispy treats in the lodge at Wolf Creek to pay for his ski pass when he was younger. “I know small towns, small markets, and small mountains,” he says.

Bricker’s passion lies in telling stories, whether via RSN/Outside Television or indy films. He recently collaborated with Outside magazine staff on a project about legendary kayakers, completely independent of the deal between RSN and Outside. He’s enthralled by the American Southwest and expects to produce more work with a regional focus. And he’s confident that his documentary work will eventually be accepted by one of the mountain film festivals at Taos, Telluride, or Boulder.

Aided by Salida’s proximity to Outside magazine offices in Santa Fe, Bricker hopes to partner with Outside on other video projects.

The sacrifices Bricker makes for his craft are worth it, he says. “Just like any small business owner, you work long hours and probably get paid less than minimum wage at the end of the day. But it’s rewarding to be able to do something that you love.”

Watch RSN live here on the Salida Citizen.