Bravo is an American
cable television channel owned by
NBC Universal. It is currently seen in more than 80 million homes and was the first service dedicated to film, drama, and the performing arts when it launched by
Cablevision as an advertisement-free channel in December 1980.
[TimeWarner Media Sales: Bravo - CableMediaSales.com Retrieved September 1, 2008.]["A Tale of Two Networks." Entertainment Weekly #1001, July 11, 2008, pg. 42.] In the early 2000s it switched from covering performing arts, drama, and indie film to being focused on pop culture like
reality shows, fashion shows, makeovers, celebrities, and so forth. Bravo's programming schedule includes feature films (primarily from the
Universal catalogue). Bravo also airs reruns of series from parent network
NBC, and produces original reality content, most popularly
Real Housewives,
Inside the Actors Studio,
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List,
Queer Eye,
Top Chef and
Flipping Out.
Ownership
Bravo TV was originally a service of Cablevision's
Rainbow Media. Between 1999 and 2001,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had a 20% stake in the channel (in addition to fellow Rainbow channels
AMC and
Romance Classics). In 2001, a stake of Bravo was acquired by NBC; the company bought the entire channel for $1.25B in 2002.
[Romano, Allison. "NBC Puts Its Stamp on Bravo." Broadcasting and Cable. February 17, 2003.] Parent company
General Electric's merged NBC with
Vivendi Universal Entertainment in May 2004, and Bravo's corporate offices are at NBC's
Rockefeller Center in
New York. Other cable channels owned by NBC Universal include
CNBC,
MSNBC,
mun2,
Sci-Fi Channel,
ShopNBC,
Telemundo,
Sleuth TV,
Chiller,
Universal HD and
USA Network, as well as some partial ownership of international cable channels such as
CNBC World,
CNBC Europe, and
CNBC Asia.
Target audience
Bravo has strong recognition among the young and among gay viewers in the United States. A study released in May 2008 ranked Bravo as the most recognizable brand among gay consumers.
["Bravo tops survey of gay-friendly companies." The Hollywood Reporter May 13, 2008.] Bravo's age demographic is people 18-54, according to the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau's cable television profiles.
Distribution
According to CableMediaSales.com, Bravo is currently available in more than 80 million homes.
Promotion
Bravo gives substantial advertising to both their original and off-network programming. Heavily promoted original content includes
Inside the Actors Studio,
Project Runway,
Top Chef, and
Celebrity Poker Showdown.
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which Bravo now produces in-house, was once an example of the off-network shows aired by Bravo, such as
The West Wing.
Programming
Bravo's "makeover" came in 2003 with reality series
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which hit 3.5 million viewers.
Bravo utilizes
block programming for both new shows and successful existing ones. Bravo has also had great success with programming franchises. These include:
100 Greatest... TV and film retrospectives, based upon the concept of
AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies;
Project Greenlight and
Project Runway;
Showbiz Moms & Dads and
Showdog Moms & Dads; and
Party/Party and a handful of successful gay-themed dating and reality shows (e.g.,
Queer Eye and
Workout, which features a lesbian lead).
In 2004 and 2006, Bravo carried coverage of the
Olympic Games during the overnights and mornings produced by NBC. In 2008, the channel carried no coverage, as NBC Universal had acquired
Oxygen, allowing Bravo to continue to carry their general programming schedule during NBC coverage of the Games.
The Future
In mid-April 2009 Bravo revealed new shows which will be premiering in the later months and returning programs. New series include:
- American Artist, from production company of Sarah Jessica Parker, is the Project Runway for aspiring art stars.
- Design Sixx, will follow Manhattan husband and wife design team Cortney and Robert Novogratz, who have turned many abandoned New York buildings into Architectural Digest-worthy living spaces.
- Kell on Earth, revolves around the frenetic life of fashion and public relations guru Kelly Cutrone, who has been featured in MTV's The Hills.
- Launch My Line (formerly announced as Celebrity Sew-Off) is fashion design competition for celebrities who always dreamed of being fashion designers. Twin brothers Dean and Dan Caten of DSquared2, will host. Contestants have yet to be announced.
The channel also unveiled several series in development including docuseries about florist to the stars Eric Buterbaugh and celebrity hairstylist
Laura Bennett;
Secret Life of Supermodels;
Jackie's Gym Takeover, which features
Jackie Warner as a fitness club savior in the spirit of
Kitchen Nightmares; and
Social Heights, about
New York City high society.
Previously announced series pick-ups include
Chef Academy, chronicling chef Jean-Christophe Novelli's move to Los Angeles as he opens a cooking school, and
Double Exposure, which follows photographers
Markus and Indrani.
The channel will continue to mine product placement and licensing opportunities, selling Kooba handbags carried by the teenagers featured in
NYC Prep and winning designs from
The Fashion Show (the Project Runway replacement) on its web site.
In Development
Both series adhere to Bravo's core unscripted programming brand of food, fashion, beauty, design and pop culture.
Blueprint is a dramedy about best friends - one straight, one gay - who run a hot
New York design and architecture firm. Laurence Andries (
Six Feet Under) and Leslie Morgenstein and Bob Levy are executive producers.
30 Under 30 - also set in New York - follows several young list makers, including a
chef, an
artist, a
real estate agent and a gossip blogger (which has supplanted gossip newspaper columnist). It's from executive producers Jonathan Prince, (who produced former NBC series Cane and
American Dreams as well as A&E's
The Cleaner) and Alana Sanko.
[digitalproducer.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=715542]
Originals
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Bravo HD
Bravo HD is a
1080i high definition simulcast of Bravo. It launched on October 3, 2007, and
DirecTV was the first provider to add it.
[DIRECTV Adds Six HD Channels (The satcaster now has 36 national high-def channels.)By Swanni (Washington, D.C. (October 3, 2007)] It is also available on
Dish Network,
Verizon FiOS, and some
Comcast,
Cox Communications,
Time Warner Cable and
Brighthouse Networks[Engadged HD - Time Warner Cable January 2009. retrived February 21, 2009] systems.
This is the second version of Bravo HD; the current
Universal HD launched as Bravo HD+ in August 2003. Bravo HD+ had a completely different schedule than the regular Bravo and aired only HD programs. The current Bravo HD airs programs in both high definition and standard definition.
Canadian Bravo!
Bravo! (with the exclamation mark) is a
Canadian English language cable television specialty channel owned by CTV Limited a division of
CTVglobemedia. It uses the "Bravo" name under license from
NBC Universal. However, aside from the name and the interview series
Inside the Actors Studio, there has been essentially no connection between the two channels since 2001, when the American Bravo channel (then under the ownership of
Cablevision's
Rainbow Media) changed its direction away from focusing on
performing arts towards a general programming direction. Many of Bravo's original programming now airs in Canada on the
Alliance Atlantis Communications slate of specialty channels, namely
Slice,
Food Network, and
HGTV.
See also
