Germany's nascent gay television
channel is drawing a large crowd and advertisers are following.
Reaction to TIMM's November 1 launch has been overwhelmingly
positive, reports Variety.
Created by the German production
company Deutsche Fernsehweke and offered by satellite and cable, TIMM
is attracting an audience and big name advertisers, BMW Mini, Ford
and Nivea included.
With the theme “We love men,” the
cable channel is aimed directly at gay men, but a press release said
it also hopes to attract a gay-friendly audience including lesbians
and “metrosexuals.”
The United States enjoys several gay
and lesbian themed cable channels including Logo, here!, Olivia and
gay-friendly Bravo; many of whom supply programming for the
gay-themed channel. Gay faves like Bravo's Kathy Griffin: My Life
On The D List and Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, join
Logo's animated series Rick And Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple In
All The World and the African-American gay drama
series-turned-movie Noah's Arc on TIMM.
Showtime's groundbreaking drama about a
group of lesbians living in Los Angeles, L Word, and America's
original gay-themed drama (via the UK) about the life-long friendship
of two gay men in gritty Pittsburgh, Queer As Folk, are also
being broadcast.
The channel broadcasts a modest 6 hours
of programming throughout the week, a bit more on the weekends,
with rebroadcasts available on the web.
“Many anticipated obscene or hardcore
content,” founder Frank Lukas told the magazine. “Others
couldn't even imagine what the channel could look like. That quickly
changed following our launch. Advertisers now understand our
concept. We're abstaining from telephone hotlines, ringtone ads and
silly quiz shows with scantily clad hosts.”
Lukas told the paper that he hopes
programming on regional issues and cultural events of interest to gay
men and lesbians – such as the annual Teddy prize for gay cinema
handed out at the Berlin International Film Festival and the
Verzaubert International Queer Film Festival – will give the
channel its edge.
Officials have also promised to tackle
Germany's leading gay rights issues such as the discrimination faced
by Muslim gays and Germany's dark era of gay persecution under Adolf
Hitler's Nazi Party.
An estimated 3.6 million gay men live
in Germany, a progressive country where gay and lesbian unions have
been recognized by the government under life partnerships since 2001.