If three Annapolis entrepreneurs have their way, you'll soon be able to learn how to chart a course across the seven seas and outfit your boat, and observe exotic ocean creatures -- all without leaving your couch.
"When they click on our channel, there's going to be water," said vTC David W. Shineman, President and chief executive officer of Blue Oyster Productions Inc. The company is proposing a Marine Channel or network to major cable distributors.
The year-old company, which has its administrative office in Glen Burnie, has lined up 700 hours of programming, including documentaries, movies, cooking and shopping shows. The company has trademarked the name Marine Channel and hopes to be on the air by next fall.
"It's not all boats," Mr. Shineman said. "We have a hundred movie titles. They all have to do with the sea, from Poseidon adventures to denizens of the deep."
Mr. Shineman, 49, and his partners, Jeff T. Esner, 43, and Darwin W. Silver, 53, hope their channel can become part of a basic cable package. If that happens, the cost to viewers would be an additional 15 to 20 cents a month, said Mr. Shineman.
The entrepreneurs decided to enter the cable market at a time when the industry is about to undergo a major expansion. Digital compression technology will arrive in the next three years, allowing cable companies to broadcast up to 500 channels.
Until that happens, the entrepreneurs are also negotiating to become a network on an existing cable channel, in which they would have a block of time. Having a stand-alone channel is too competitive and costly, said Mr. Shineman.
The company is talking to the Outdoor Life Channel, a nature channel that is to go on the air next summer, and to the 3-year-old Outdoor Channel, a 24-hour recreational activity channel that goes to 5 million homes.
"The programming the Marine Channel is committed to is instrumental, informational and for entertainment," said Ray Cooper, executive vice president and general manager of the Outdoor Channel, based in Temecula, Calif. "If there is a way to work out a relationship, we will do it."
Local cable companies said viewers haven't asked for more marine programming.
"I've never had a customer of ours ask for a channel like that," said Paul Janson, general manager of Intermedia of Maryland, which broadcasts in Anne Arundel County.
He said he has had requests for channels devoted to golf, religion, romance and western movies.
Mr. Janson said he doesn't think the Marine Channel could survive on its own, but that it might as part of another channel.
The three entrepreneurs behind the channel think they have a potential market of up to 50 million viewers, including 30 million boat owners.
The idea of producing a marine channel began three years ago when Mr. Esner realized there wasn't much marine programming on television.
"If I wanted to see it, I thought, so did other people," he said.
Mr. Esner, who had no previous experience in broadcasting, asked his longtime friend Mr. Silver, a producer and editor with the Public Broadcasting System in Washington, to help him produce marine programs. Mr. Shineman joined them last year to form Blue Oyster Productions.
Mr. Esner and Mr. Shineman worked in the marine industry and now market the company. Mr. Silver is the company's executive producer. The company hopes to move to Annapolis next spring to be closer to the water.
"I think it's time the marine industry has a voice on national television," said Mr. Shineman.