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Television may be a vast wasteland

Television may be a vast wasteland, but for the last four years a group of investors has been working to establish an oasis for Ovation, an independent cable channels channel devoted to art and contemporary culture.

It”s not easy being a little guy in a land of media giants, lacking leverage and deep pockets. But the Santa Monica-based Ovation has notched impressive casino online cable duct gains and is attempting to prove that an arts channel can thrive on TV.

Available in only 5 million homes in 2007, the channel now can be seen in about 42 million homes, or nearly half of all cable and satellite households in the country. Ovation also has bolstered its roster of advertisers — including such marquee companies as Chase Bank,Acura and Subaru — and this year the channel swung into the black.

“We are here to build a profitable arts channel. It can be done,” said Charles Segars, a longtime television programmer who is chief executive of Ovation. “The arts have never failed in America, and a whole new generation of artists is formed every day.”

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