My 1st Post

Fifteen years ago my wife and I started a company called Rocky Mountain Resorts Network, which became known as Videographic West for many years. Videographic West was renamed through a merger and re-acquistion and today our company is known as Action Television, Inc.

Action Television is a programming company specializing in lifestyle programming. Our shows have aired across the US and in Europe. In the states you might have seen our original series Ski TV, Golf Life or our most recent series Inside Poker. These programs air on Fox Sports Net, Comcast Sports Net and various independant regional sports networks.

My wife Stephanie Billingsley and I have run our company from offices we own in Avon, Colorado for the past decade. However, we recently decided to make the move to the big city and now reside in Broomfield, just north of Denver, Colorado. Our television programs are currently not in distribution and I'm taking time to reflect on the past 15 years in the cable television business. I will turn 40 in December so all the change of the part months comes at an interesting time in my life.

Life is interesting, sometimes your moving along, working through the piles of tasks at hand. Then all the sudden things come to an end for a brief moment and you look around and life has changed. That is exactly what happened to me.

In August it looked as if we would be starting our second season of Inside Poker. We had just completed a crazy summer where we distributed the 6th season of our series Golf Life and the first season of Inside Poker. Each week we had to shoot, edit and ship out a new completed 30 minute show. Needless to say we ran after a few UPS trucks to get our shows to the national television audience in time.

We had our house in Vail listed, but no movement all summer long. I believed we would stay put in the mountains. We had put earnest money on a house being built in Denver. While Steph wanted to move very badly, it looked like we were going to have to let go of the Denver house.

Then wham! We sold our home in Vail and closed on the place in Broomfield very quickly. Then I make the decision to take Inside Poker out of distribution until Q1 of 2007. I shut down our office in Avon and move most of the equipment to Denver. For all reasonable purposes we are financially sound and there is nothing forcing me to hurry back into any quick business moves. All the sudden after 15 years of "being in business" and working mostly around the clock producing and selling programming I've finally go some time to sit back and review the last decade in a half.

For a small production and television company we have probably put out more television programming than just about any other company our size in the US. Our shows have won awards and consistently get very good reviews from our viewers. We have definately had our struggles and our share of successes as well. I feel like I've done a lot and now is the time to look back and plan our next step forward.

This blog is dedicated to that decision. Do we continue on the difficult path of creating cable programming or do we look to a new path entirely? Do we take all the equipment and stock footage and value we have acumalated over the years and leverage that into furture profits or do we take a new path with new tools and new ideas? Do I staff a new office in Denver or work with my freelance talent remotely with each of us in our own offices?

In the coming months and years I will try to document this journey and reflect back on the challenges of concepting, selling, syndicating and producing cable television programming. I hope this blog will be a benefit to others in the production business who want to produce their own show. At least maybe it can provide an entertaining platform to chronical a mid-life crossroads (and hopefully not a crisis).

Thanks for following my writings if you choose to read on.....


mike