Four to pitch for Country Music TV

Country Music Television will brief four agencies this week before inviting them to pitch for a £1.5m above-the-line awareness campaign scheduled to start next month.

The channel, available in 3.5 million cable and satellite TV homes in the UK and a further 5 million on the Continent, wants to broaden its audience beyond the predominantly upmarket female viewers who tune in at present.

Harari Page, which created a launch campaign for CMT when it went onto the Astra satellite as part of the Sky Multi-Channels subscription package in 1993, will be included in the pitch (MW October 1, 1993).

“The only reason for this pitch is that the channel’s US owners want to see a variety of work,” said Ashley Faull, vice president marketing and distribution at United Artists Programming, which co-ordinates marketing for CMT in Europe.

“This will not in any way affect UAP’s existing relationship with Harari Page, which handles advertising for us for Discovery, Brava, TLC and Wire TV.”

The £1.5m spend will cover only the short campaign beginning next month. More advertising could happen later in the year if extra budget is approved.