Comcast Gets Channel for Baby Boomers

Cable television giant Comcast has agreed to offer a channel of programming dedicated exclusively to the 50 and older crowd. The programming is from Retirement Living TV and includes a talk show, current events, and a game show. All in an attempt to appeal to Baby Boomers' television viewing habits.

"We have significant ageism bias in our country," John Erickson, who launched RLTV two years ago, told the Wall Street Journal. "I wanted to talk all that negative -- 'Oh, they're really supposed to sit in a rocking chair and watch reruns' -- and say this isn't the way life works at all."

Verizon, through its FiOS television network, had been distributing RLTV programming but to a small subscriber base of 1.6 million households. Comcast, at 12 million homes, will start making RLTV available first in retirement-laden communities of Tucson, Ariz., and Albuquerque, N.M., before rolling it out to other parts of the country.

"Comcast is proud to support Americans 50 plus with the kind of targeted programs that only RLTV offers," Matt Bond, Executive Vice President of Content Acquisition for Comcast, said in a press release. "Comcast aims to provide the best in video entertainment to all of our customers, and we are pleased to offer quality, targeted entertainment to this growing audience."

According to the release, the network has more than 1,000 hours of original programming on health, finance and other issues. These include two programs produced by AARP -- "My Generation" and "Inside E Street." The Journal said “Brady Bunch” mother Florence Henderson would host the talk show, and that game show is a kind of an older "American Idol." Other programming includes "Retired & Wired" (a daily tech show), "Daily Cafe" (a current events show co-produced with NBC News), and "Whole Body Health" (a holistic medicine show).

Capturing the ever-elusive advertising dollar, especially for the huge Boomer demographic is important to both Comcast and RLTV. "There is a heated battle for the hearts, minds, and eyeballs of the booming 50+ demo, and we're thrilled that Comcast is joining RLTV so that the two companies together can enhance the television experience for this demographic," Brad Knight, RLTV's CEO, said in the news release.