Palm Springs, Calif. (Ski Press)-By early next year, households across the country will be able to enjoy the wonderful world of winter right from the comfort of their own living rooms.

Steve Bellamy, founder and former president of the Tennis Channel, plans to launch the Ski Channel early in 2008. With original content on everything from skiing and snowboarding to rock climbing, kayaking and even high country real estate hunting, the Ski Channel will let couch skiers tap into the splendor of the mountains 24/7.

“The mountain world is an industry with over 30 million enthusiasts, 500 resorts, 60 million annual visits and $10 Billion of yearly resort and travel spending,” Bellamy said. “Its large, upscale audience will be a great match with cable television.”

Bellamy is already well on his way to creating the channel, with a long-term affiliation agreement with Time Warner Cable and a testimonial from Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association, who said, “Our industry is hungry for a national television destination and our enthusiasts will be desirous for this type of network.”

Ski Press plans to post regular reports on Bellamy’s progress, as well as on the ramifications of a channel devoted just to skiing and mountain activities. First, we sat down with Bellamy to get a quick glimpse of what sparked the idea, and how he sees his big idea taking form.

Ski Press: Why a Ski Channel?

Steve Bellamy: In the immortal words of John Belushi in Animal House, “Why Not?” Seriously though, skiing is the biggest category that doesn’t have a national destination platform on television. Like golf and tennis, skiing is a lifetime sport, golf is on morning, noon and night while tennis has four Grand Slams on ESPN and broadcast television as well as The Tennis Channel. I’m a huge advocate of lifetime sports, and realized that with the commitment it takes to go skiing – typically getting on a plane, renting a car, getting a hotel or condo, bringing or renting your skis and snowboards and getting tickets and lessons – there was a real opportunity to reach this committed audience right at home.

SP: How do you plan to capture the excitement of skiing on TV?

SB: We’re going to cover everything from competition to real estate and fine dining. But if you look just at the competition aspect, it’s uber important to get the backstory of the athletes into the broadcast so that the audience can identify with them. NBC does that so well in the Olympics, where they introduce you to athletes you never heard of and take you behind the scenes so that you get to know and cheer for them. It personalizes the event when you know how hard they worked to get where they are, and I think with skiing the backstory has to be more magnified as a necessity. Because of the goggles, helmets and clothing that cover the skiers up, it’s harder to get a feeling for the person, so we want to focus on bringing a deeper knowledge of the individuals to the programming.

SP: What did you learn at the Tennis Channel that you can translate into Skiing?

SB: We learned was that our viewers were way deeper in the niche than we might have anticipated. They truly appreciated how much we cared about making our broadcasts better. It seemed that 90 percent of people who watch tennis complain about the commentators, the camera angles, not being able to see the ball on screen, so we really focused on finding the right color commentators and the right angles for our cameras. In most tennis broadcasts the camera #1 position was extremely far away from the court because spectators fought tooth and nail to get the courtside seats, relegating camera positions to somewhere between the moon and Mars. We fought hard to get our cameras in the first couple of rows so fans could really see the spin and how hard the players were hitting the ball. We also learned a lot from shows like American Idol, where they take an absolute unknown and turn them into a star. We took that to heart – that our audience wants to know more about who the artists and athletes really are.

SP: Why will active skiers want to tune in?

SB: Because we’re so focused on understanding their needs and giving them everything they need. We will know these people inside, outside, forwards and backwards and answer directly to them. If you want a great Italian dinner, you don’t go to a diner, you go to a specialist – an Italian restaurant. We’re the specialists in the sport of skiing. We always have our ear to the ground, and are constantly listening to expert opinions. We’ll always be shaping our channel based on the smartest people’s wisdom, with a focus on the sport that the broadcast networks just don’t have.

SP: Give us a reason to watch?

SB: We’re going to create an incredible network that everyone sitting in every living room in America can watch. Serving skiers and mountain enthusiasts is going to be 100 percent of our focus – we’re going to understand their every want and need, whether it’s in our coverage of competition, destination travel, equipment insight and instruction, or those off-season, ancillary sports like hiking and mountain biking, to which we’ll also devote a significant amount of instruction. By understanding them and integrating with them at every turn, we will build a great media vehicle that will help to grow the snowsports industry.