March 12
By Jennifer Cirillo

Celebrating its 15th year anniversary in April, CABLEready is the television industry’s premier independent program representation firm, with clients from around the world. Since 1993 CABLEready has grown to provide more U.S. networks with licensed programs than any other program distributor.

And that’s “because we’ve specialized,” explained President and CEO Gary Lico, a 17-year Riverside resident, “We try to know cable programming better than anyone else in the business.”

As a result of CABLEready’s specialization in cable, a second company was launched last December – CableU.

After joining forces with Cynopsis, a daily newsletter with the most up-to-date information on the television business, CABLEready launched a subscription only online service that monitors and analyzes cable network performance and programming. Subscribers benefit by receiving up-to-the-minute proprietary research, analysis and insight on 25 U.S. cable networks, including Discover Channel, History Channel, A&E, Court TV, Bravo, National Geographic and Comedy Central.

“All along, what we’ve been about is making producers smarter about what they do so that they can make better programs that are better targeted to the cable networks that we sell to,” explained Lico, 53.

The system of doing “homework” on individual networks is not a new concept for CABLEready. But offering that information to others, beyond the realm of its clientele, is.

One company goal for this year that appears on a white dry-erase board in Lico’s office was to sell an X amount of subscriptions for CableU.

So far, subscribers include ABC, A&E Television Networks, BET, Comcast, Discovery Communications, VOOM and Smithsonian Networks. Other members are European programmers, Channel 5 UK and Prosieben in addition to producers and distributors Lion Television, CMJ Productions, IMG, Towers Productions, Cineflix International, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Tapestry International, Edelman Productions and Wild Eyes Productions.

“They (CABLEready) give you that instant knowledge…that you wouldn’t get otherwise,” said Nick Verbitsky, CEO of Blue Chip Films in Norwalk. Blue Chip Films, a nine-year-old video and film production company, has been a CABLEready client for three years.

Verbitsky credits CABLEready and Lico’s team for helping his company land television deals that they were unable to attain on their own Blue Chip Films is currently working on a piece for a cable network (details could not be disclosed), on a deal secured through CABLEready.

“They give you instant credibility as a producer because they have such a great track record with all that they’ve done,” Verbitsky explained as a reason for why he has continued to stick with the company. “They have their finger on the pulse of what networks are looking for at any given time.”

Over the past 15 years, CABLEready’s program library has grown to include more than 160 nonfiction titles and more than 1600 episodes of programs.

In 1994, CABLEready provided Bravo with “Inside the Actors Studio,” the network’s first original production – a big part of the company’s early growth, according to Lico.

After that, the company started to provide original programming to leading U.S. cable networks.

In 2000, CABLEready’s “Forensic Files,” a sibling series to TLC’s “medical Detectives,” launched on Court TV and remains one of its flagship series.

But in addition to development deals, CABLEready has landed international distribution deals with top program providers like Court TV, New York Times Television, TV Guide Channel, Lionsgate, Outdoor life Network, the Weather Channel and Burrud Productions.

“There’s this perception of CABLEready, in our business, that we are so much bigger than we really are,” said Sabrina Sanchez-Ayala, 29, vice president of sales and marketing. “We’re a global company. People are usually amazed when they find out how small we really are.”

The company has nine employees, including Lico.

It began, however, with Lico and a PowerBook in his Riverside home after he left his position as vice president of the eastern region with Columbia Pictures Television, where he worked for seven years. During his time at Columbia, Lico was instrumental in generating programming sales to the cable industry, taking cable transactions to $42 million in just over three years.

“Our company (Columbia) was the first studio to really open up its vaults and start selling to cable networks,” explained the 30-year broadcast veteran. “I was interested in that and I felt there was a business there.” A husband and father of three young boys at the time, took a risk by not renewing his contract with Columbia and launching CABLEready.

It was Hearst Broadcasting that gave Lico his first program, “Capelli and Company,” a children’s show. Within six weeks, Lico, though he was the third company trying to sell the program, found a buyer – Nickelodeon.

“It was the first and only locally produced kids show (Nickelodeon) had ever bough. And that’s what put us in business.”

Within a year, someone was interested in buying CABLEready.

“This business will give you one year,” Lico repeated the advise someone had given him when he first started out. “They will support you and want you to succeed for one year. If after that, you haven’t shown some momentum or some ability to succeed, then you’re on your own.”

And every year, CABLEready has gained momentum. Even last year despite turnover within the company, it grew 46 percent in revenue and launched a new business – CableU.

Sharing the Wealth
The self-described “lucky kid from the suburbs of Detroit” has shared his “luck” and continues to give back to the institutions that helped him grow.

He’s teaching six classes next month at Central Michigan University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in broadcast and cinematic arts, and a programming class at Syracuse University, where he earned a master’s in TV/radio/film.

Lico has also initiated the CABLEready Graduate Award, which began for the company’s 10th anniversary. It is given to graduate students over a 10-year period at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse.

It was this tenure at Newhouse that led to Lico’s first job – the employer was specifically looking for a Syracuse University student. So, when CABLEready was looking to expand, Lico turned to his alma mater for a candidate. It was Sanchez-Ayala, a tri-lingual student from Stamford interested in sales, who joined the CABLEready team, and over a six-year period grew to become a vice president, overseeing all international sales and marketing activities.

Lico’s also the organizer of the NATPE Food Project, which donates leftover food from events at the NATPE Program conferences and exhibitions. To date, nearly 10 tons of food has been donated in Miami, Las Vegas and New Orleans.

So, what’s the key to success?

“I think if you want to have a small business, you have to specialize and that’s what I chose to do,” said Lico. “And ever since then I’ve been cable.”