The founder of RLTV, the cable channel that offers news and lifestyle viewing exclusively for over-50s viewers, has said that the channel has realistic plans of doubling its reach by the end of 2012.
RLTV – or Retirement Living TV – has been a tremendous success story, according to its founder, John Erickson, who said that older people have long been ignored by conventional programming. Erickson said that people over-50 now have vibrant and colourful lifestyles and cannot afford to be ignored.
Particularly with the kind of disposable incomes that many younger people do not have and, frankly, are advertisers’ dreams.
“We [as a culture] don’t have a very positive attitude about ageing, said the 68-year-old Erickson during an interview from RLTV’s Baltimore’s headquarters. “We don’t celebrate these 25 or 30 years of life in any meaningful way that give people a sense of honour or dignity and involvement.”
The channel is currently watched in more than 15 million homes across the country, having attracted the services of major (older) names in broadcasting an television, including former Good Morning America host, Joan Lunden, and ABC News veterans Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts.
This year it is also venturing into reality programming, including a dating show for older people, entitled Another Chance for Romance.
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