The Family Channel plans to launch an all-game show cable TV network that would allow viewers to play televised games over the telephone, the company announced Sunday.
Virginia Beach-based International Family Entertainment, as the Family Channel is formally known, said the new channel would run 24-hours-a-day, featuring newly-created games as well as established game shows. It will be called the Game Channel.
``Game shows are the most-watched programming niche not represented by its own network,'' Family Channel President Timothy Robertson said.
The channel would use "900" telephone service - nationwide numbers that charge a fee based on the length of the call - to give players access to the games.
The games will revolve around a range of themes, including sports, movies, music, history, news and children's trivia, the Family Channel said.
Games Technologies Inc. will design the games, which will be produced from Hollywood.
Family Channel said cable TV systems offering the all-game service would receive a large percentage of revenue from the 900-number calls, and would also be able to offer local ads with interactive game tie-ins.
``A new revenue participation for the operator combined with one of the most popular genres on television is the creative catalyst to break the Game Channel out from the crowded field'' of cable networks, said Ron Harris, Family Channel's vice president of new business ventures.
In its prospectus for last week's stock offering, Family Channel said it was considering moving into new areas, including a Western-oriented channel as well as an all-game network.
The company is also exploring Spanish-language services as well as ventures in South Korea, Britain and Czechoslovakia.
