Yesterday at its Third Annual Spotlight on Specialty Television, Alliance Atlantis Communications unveiled a new ongoing research project conducted via the Internet involving four consumer advisory panels.

Sara Moore, SVP of marketing and publicity, says the panels were established in February of this year as part of a determined effort to engage Alliance Atlantis network viewers in a more meaningful way, and she expects they will provide valuable insights on important industry and company issues.

Moore says amongst the many marketing benefits of the initiative is that the broadcaster can extend relationships with viewers to direct them back to various websites, e-newsletters, and other marketing vehicles as well as to test and create more engaging and targeted marketing campaigns.

There are over 6,000 members of the first panel that represents the general viewing public. The other three are made up of regular viewers of HGTV (HGTVinsider.ca), Food Network (Foodtvinsider.ca), and Life Network (Lifenetworkinsider.ca).

The panels are being used on a frequent basis (every three to four weeks) to generate insights into TV viewing and other media habits, communication preferences, brand perception, advertising awareness and other critical issues.

Some of the questions and findings since the establishment of the panels in February are:

Does having HDTV affect the amount of live (not recorded) television you watch?

Watching about the same amount – 60%

Watching somewhat more – 23%

Watching a lot more – 8%

Watching somewhat less – 5%

Watching a lot less – 4%

Percentage of viewers who agree with this statement: ‘I visit the channel’s website’:

Food Network – 42%

TSN – 33%

HGTV – 18%

Discovery Channel – 17%

Showcase – 11%

In order to help promote the program Junk Brothers on HGTV, the panel was asked about their garbage-picking habits:

· 40% of Canadians report that they have picked up items at the curb

· 73% of those identify that furniture is what they have salvaged

The advisory panels also support multimedia content to allow testing or programming, on-air promos, and other advertising (both Alliance Atlantis and other marketers). Strategic Counsel has been hired to provide ongoing consultation and analysis on feedback received from the panels.

The generic panel will serve as a testing ground for new content, to monitor competitive threats, advertising awareness, tracking awareness and usage of new media, and new channel and on-demand content development.

The branded panels will be used to understand the customer and brand of loyal viewers as well as to test new and existing content, track the impact over time of programming changes, to develop a demographic and psychographic profile of both frequent and occasional users, and to test ad campaigns and on-air promos before they go to air.

And on the statistical research side, Doug Davis, VP research and revenue management, illustrated that beyond new engagement efforts, reach has also gone up for English Canada specialty. Davis pointed out that the share of hours tuned by station group for adults 25-54 has seen a growth for Canadian commercial specialty from 18.8% in 1998, to 30.1% in 2005, while Canadian conventional commercial has dropped almost 10%, from 45% to 35.5%, over that period, based on Nielsen Media Research findings. He also noted that the buyable share of hours tuned by station group (backing out the 34% of viewing that is unavailable for Canadian advertisers to place spots on) has increased 16% for specialty over that period, up to 46% for 2005, and dropped from 70% to 54% for Canadian commercial conventional.

Alliance Atlantis has also started to reveal the summer programming schedules for its networks. Highlights on BBC Canada include the North American premiere of Alan Clark Diaries starring John Hurt as one of Britain’s most colorful politicians of the 1980s and ’90s. The comedy will be run in six half-hour episodes being Thursday, July 6 in the 8 p.m. slot. And on the drama side, the 15-part adaptation of Charles Dickens epic Bleak House begins as an eight-episode series on Wednesday, Aug. 2. BBC’s popular lifestyle programming will be adding Trading Up In the Sun, beginning Saturday July 8 at 8:00 pm. It features design duo Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan (How Not to Decorate) as they test their talents in foreign territories when they swap the streets of rainy Britain for the sunny climes of Spain and France to find the ideal homes for British buyers. Eight episodes are scheduled.

June is Baby Month on Discovery Health Channel with five one-hour specials scheduled for each Sunday evening of the month: Quints by Surrogacy, Raising 16 Children, Multiples & Mayhem, Quints: The First Year, and Babies: Special Delivery Reunion.

Among the specials scheduled during June, July and August on History Television is the world premiere of Fatherland, a 90-minute personal essay on family history and memory on June 17. Canadian filmmaker Manfred Becker sets out on a quest to understand his father’s past as a soldier in Hitler’s army as well as his son’s fascination with it. Also on History, the 90th anniversary of the battle of the Somme will be recognized July 1 with Secrets of the Somme, a 60-minute special featuring footage from July 1, 1916 and the story of the enormous casualties suffered by the 1st Newfoundland regiment in that battle.

National Geographic Channel has Predator Week on the slate for July 2 to 7 with provocatively titled programming such as The Dark Side of Hippos, Lions Behaving Badly, Crocs Here Be Dragons and Kalahari Supercats. In July, the channel launches the first of six 60-minute episodes of RX for Survival, a miniseries designed to create understanding about the importance of global health which looks at infectious diseases and the resurfacing of diseases previously thought to have been conquered.