XPLN will be a 24-hour broadcast & multi-media channel providing informative and entertaining current affairs content, principally in a format combining pre-prepared topic information packages, hosted panel debates and interviews.

The format

XPLN will encourage fact-based, discursive debate that airs a range of informed opinions and that acknowledges the complexities and inter-relatedness of issues in current affairs. It will draw participants from a range of sectors with diverse interests to convey to viewers the breadth of interests in any issue, backed up by introductory fact-based information packages that ground the discussion in real data and evidence. Panel participants will be drawn from political milieux, civil & public service agencies, academia, think-tanks, NGOs, industry groups, business researchers, journalists, as well as from Futuresphere and University of St James, London ProSPEc.

The channel will be broadcast as well as streamed online using multi-media technology with supports interactivity & audience involvement. Information packages will also be stored in a combined knowledge archive for Futuresphere & XPLN, that will be a feature available to upper-tier individual and corporate subcribers to these features.

Initially launching in the UK, the lower viewership hours in the 24-hour viewing cycle will be filled out with curated, fact-based content from other sources including relevant documentaries and historically accurate film depictions relevant to topics under discussion. These will feature intriductory packages tying together the overnight content.

Morning programming can feature a contextualised news round-up in which recent events are placed in the context of the larger social, political and economic phenomena of which they are part.

The commercial proposition

XPLN will be funded by sponsoring brands — firms whose topic experts will also be invited to participate in panel debates in whcih they hold expertise. These segments will providing edited AV promotional material for sonsoring firmss subsequent use in their own online promotion.

Key target sectors will be buy-side firms and sell-side firms with research teams, other financial institutions, professional services firms and consultancies. Major corporate businesses will also be a viable customer segment. A major selling point for firms will be that the editorial tone of XPLN will be to promote open, pluralistic and reasoned debate — offering a pro-democracy sales angle that may be attractive to both British- and foreign-owned firms. All brand sponsors will be subject to due diligence to ensure their values-in-action align with their espoused brand values.

Audience

The target audience will be those attentive to political, social and economic issues. XPLN will establish channel commitment through use of interactive, online functionality and seek to grow audience share using targeted online advertising. UK industry research suggests there will be signficant unsatisfied demand for the proposed approach to programming, due partly to the widespread phenomenon of news fatigue and limited contectualisation in many news-only formats.

Other functions

In addition to in-house production for broadcast (and streaming online ) XPLN will house the AV production expertise that will be essential to other commercial initiatives — preparing video presentations of Futuresphere research to reach multiple target audiences in multiple formats, and capturing and editing the expert contributing lecturers’ content for use on ProSPEc.

XPLN will also record and produce edited packages of the policy colloquia that will be subject to participant clearances ex ante and approval ex post to maximum effectiveness in subsequent communication initiatives, whether via XPLN or other media.

XPLN Media will also publish and promote a regular current affairs magazine in co-ordination with Futuresphere and praxis-oriented journal relating to public policy issues in co-ordination with ProSPEc personnel.

Longer-term, we will aim to spread geographic coverage of XPLN to other jurisdictions, including Europe, North America and Australia & New Zealand. The aim will be provde coverage relevant to each jurisdiction around the clock, with debates convened in each of the jurisdictions covered. Ultimately, we will also aim to offer coverage in India, the world’s largest democracy, the future of which may do much to determine the attractiveness of the liberal democracy in the ‘global South.’