From...

May 7, 1999
Web posted at: 3:27 p.m. EDT (1927 GMT)

by Lessley Anderson

(IDG) -- Columbia TriStar Interactive launched its soap-opera Web site, SoapCity.com, nearly two years ago with only a distant idea that it might morph into a TV project. But today, Columbia TriStar Television Group, in cooperation

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with Sony Pictures Entertainment, announced that it is doing just that.

The new SoapCity channel will offer 24 hours of pure soap-opera drama, taking advantage of the huge fan base that has built SoapCity.com into a highly trafficked site (3 million pages views a month and 40,000 subscribers to the weekly newsletter, the company boasts).

The SoapCity site offers soap fans news, gossip, pictures and general information on all of the popular soap operas, with a saucy editorial tone set by executive producer Michael Fairman. Though the site originally began with two pages devoted to Sony-owned properties The Young and the Restless and Days of our Lives, Fairman convinced the studio and its interactive division to let him include the whole world of soaps, regardless of studio ownership. A popular draw on today's site are the biweekly live chats with soap stars, writers and producers.

"The stars of these shows flock to Michael to do the chats, because they like him as a moderator," says Columbia TriStar Interactive's VP and general manager Lynda Keeler. "They know he understands the fine line between their soap opera characters, versus their identities as actors."

It is hardly a rare thing for a Web site to be spun off a cable channel or hot TV property – Viacom (VIAB)'s VH1, MTV and Nickelodeon all launched Web sites to capitalize on the popularity of the respective cable channels, for example. But in SoapCity's case, the Web helped legitimize the need for an all-soap channel.

"The studio saw our fan base grow," says Keeler.

Sony has a history of finding a creative use for its assets across platforms. After launching Gameshow Network in 1997, the studio launched the Station Web site, featuring Web-based multiplayer versions of its most popular properties, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. (The Station recently launched an online version of the Dating Game where players can flirt with each other in real time.)

In preparation for SoapCity's cable channel launch, expected to debut in January 2000, the SoapCity Web site will expand its community features to include personalization, homepage building and Webcasts of episodes that viewers may have missed. The site's three full-time staffers will grow to 15, Keeler said. In the meantime, stay tuned.