Attention Superhero Fans: This Is Your Channel

Are you like me? Obsessed about all things superhero related? Have you watched Star Wars four thousand times and still love it every time you see it?

Well Spike TV banked on that and reportedly spent close to $65 million in 2005 to get the rights to all six films in the Star Wars franchise. That bet is paying off big time! “Star Wars-Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” was the highest rated movie in network history. Fifty two million tuned in to see it and the hits keep coming. “Star Wars: Episode IV return of the Jedi” a week later was the highest-rated movie of the year on ad-supported cable among M 18-49 and P 18-49 and the highest-rated movie in Spike history in those demos. The network as a result had their best quarter in three years with viewership up 15% from the first quarter of 2007.

And Star Wars isn’t the only franchise they”re investing in! They just bought the rites to all four “Rambo” movies, which won’t be available until 2011. They have an original comedy called “Factory” (a more relaxed version of Entourage) coming out and they’re in their seventh season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” a reality show in the ultimate fighting arena, a staple for the network.

So how do they differentiate themselves and grab as many male eyeballs as they do? They market the movies and television shows in a fun, young, unadulterated, humorous way.

This morning I sat down with Robert Friedman, senior vice of president of programming and Niels Schuurmans, senior vice president of creative services from Spike TV, who showed me in part how their campaign to attract viewers won George Lucas over when many other networks aggressively bid for the rights to re-air the Star Wars franchise.