City tells its story in US - thanks to the Sentinel

Last week, Culture Company 2013 said it was delighted to announce a partnership with a new US-based television channel ‘Today’s Ireland’ which will see the company provide ten half-hour programmes focusing on Derry-Londonderry’s UK City of City of Culture programme.

The programmes will deliver an undiluted message to America, after being transmitted across the Atlantic via a server provided by the CEO of MHZ-Networks, Fred Thomas.

Mr Thomas is acclaimed in the US as a man who has brought more international TV programming to America than all other networks combined.

Last week the new channel was launched at the Titanic Centre in Belfast, the Dail in Dublin and at Seagate in Londonderry. Seagate graciously offered to stage the launch after the deal was sealed, much to the delight of Mr Thomas and his UK and Ireland representative, Tony Culley-Foster.

Seagate in the city has been a success story, in terms of its position as a major provider of disk heads in hi tech equipment throughout the world, and celebrates its 20th anniversary in the city in April.

Tony Culley-Foster is himself a native of Londonderry, but lives in Washington DC and counts leading US politicians and business people among his friends. He is also heavily involved in educational programmes, and is chair of the World Affairs Council’s Global Education Committee. In that role, he presented a major award to Frederick Thomas, a week before the launch in Londonderry.

Mr Thomas was named the World Affairs Council – Washington, DC (WAC-DC) Global Education award recipient for 2013, at the Global Education Gala on March 7, 2013 at the Ritz Carlton, Washington, DC, which raised over $1m for the global education programme.

While the partnership with Londonderry was launched only last week, the seed was first sown in November 2011, when the Londonderry Sentinel editor, William Allen, attended a Media Forum meeting organised by the Culture Company. As talk turned to how the diaspora in the US could be reached, Mr Allen recommended that contact be made with Mr Culley-Foster, who counts US presidents among those who have paid tribute to his work, and who has personal friendships with some of the most powerful people in Washington DC. Such was his impact since setting up home and business in the US, that his name featured in the World’s Who’s Who.

While no official contact was made at that stage, Mr Allen got in touch with Mr Culley-Foster, who originally hails from the Waterside, to let him know that he had put his name forward. Later, when MHZ-Networks decided to launch a new channel that featured content sourced from Dublin and Belfast that covered both sides of the border. Mr Culley-Foster persuaded Mr Thomas to include Londonderry in its schedule.

Acting on a voluntary basis, the Sentinel editor then helped arrange a series of meetings over a lengthy period of time. While the original offer of two hours per week was not accepted, the city agreed to provide content of 30 minutes per month, for broadcast on Today’s Ireland.

“Londonderry is the only city, on either side of the border that has been given the opportunity to sell itself to an audience of 38m in the US,” said Mr Culley-Foster, who hopes the availability of top students at the University of Ulster and North West Regional College could lead to further content being provided, and that the students can see their names on programme credits.

In a hand-written letter to the Sentinel editor, he added: “William...without your leadership Derry-Londonderry would not be part of Today’s Ireland. It seems a lifetime ago that you called DC and asked for support...to advance our city’s brand, assets and attractions to the Scots-Irish-American diaspora and US citizens interested in the 21st century contemporary Ireland. Our contemporary 21st century city has a great story to tell.”

The Culture Company said last week’s announcement represents “a significant investment of over £30,000 by Culture Company into marketing the UK City of Culture programme to the North American population with particular emphasis on the key Irish-American diaspora audience”.

Speaking at the launch at Seagate, Culture Company 2013 chairman Martin Bradley said: “Spreading the word about what is going on here in Derry~Londonderry during the City of Culture year around the rest of the world was always an important plank of the marketing campaign. City of Culture has made a substantial financial commitment in excess of £30,000 to create content for this exciting new channel to showcase the exciting and divers programme which has been created for 2013.

“Working in partnership with Today’s Ireland gives us a tremendous platform in America to let the millions of people of Irish diaspora living there know about our programme and hopefully persuade them to pay us a visit.”

The Nerve Centre has almost completed filming for the first half hour programme to be broadcast on the new network in America. Nine further half-hour programmes, presented by Gemma Walker and Oran O’Carroll, will be completed and broadcast throughout the remainder of 2013.

The first edition of the new programme will include some of the highlights of the City of Culture year so far including the Other Voices weekend, the Guinness World Record song and dance routine attempt at Ebrington Square and the Scor na nOg finals at The Venue 2013, as well as taking a look at some of the events to come later in the year including The Return of Colmcille.

Last week’s launch was also filmed for broadcast on the opening day, while Mr Bradley and Mayor Campbell were also invited to the Washington DC launch.