While many companies are finding it an uphill battle to get credit, the Ski Channel said it has raised all the financing it will need to launch and sustain it for the life of the business.
With the financing, the channel has staffed up, hiring industry veterans for key roles.
Ski Channel plans to announce its launch date next week.
Founder Steve Bellamy said the financing was completed just before the market tanked and that the money is coming from a group of businessmen, athletes and other luminaries. The only ones he identified were the tennis-playing Bryan brothers.
The Bryans got to know Mr. Bellamy when he started the Tennis Channel.
“The Ski Channel is now capitalized in a great way with wonderful partners,” Mr. Bellamy said.
He declined to say how much money has been committed to the channel by the new backers.
New executives at Ski Channel include David Haskell, who had been a general partner of a Los Angeles CPA firm, named chief operating officer/chief financial officer; VP of Programming and Content Ritch Tavtigian, a two-time Emmy winner from Sony; and VP of Development and Operations Neil Deiter, who has worked with NBC, E!, and Fox.
The Ski Channel is designed as an advertising-supported network distributed via video-on-demand, the Web and wireless.
It has signed as partners a number of distributors, content owners, advertisers and promoters including Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Bright House Networks, Panasonic, Marquis Jets, Fender Guitars, Mirage, Rage Films, Ride Guide, World Heli Championships, Teva Mountain Games, Level 1, Skiers World and Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley.
The deals with Time Warner Cable, Cox and Bright House should give Ski Channel VOD distribution in about 13 million homes. Mr. Bellamy previously said the channel would have about 20 million households when it launched.