Marketers seek gold in green TV

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Coming soon to a cable system near you: Rock star Tommy Lee setting off on an eco-friendly concert tour; chef Emeril Lagasse cooking organic at Whole Foods in Fairfax; and a documentary about the rebuilding — with sustainable products, of course — of a Kansas town that was flattened by a tornado.

Also on the air — not to mention on the energy-using giant plasma screen — are shows about making small changes, large renovations, and which Hollywood celebrity is working on saving the planet.

Planet Green, which debuts in more than 50 million homes in early June, is the most ambitious offering in green television. Sure, one could read about recycling, but now come documentaries, reality shows and lifestyle makeover shows on the subject. Discovery is investing more than $50 million in original programming as it reinvents Discovery Home into a 24/7 network about living green.

Are television watchers clamoring to watch how energy-saving windows are installed? Looking to assuage guilt over their sport utility vehicles by watching someone else drive a Prius? Is the programming a sneaky, non-threatening way to package environmentalist propaganda or simply a way for marketers to sell new Earth-friendly products?

Some of each, and it depends on whom you ask.

Planet Green joins smaller projects with a similar theme, such as Sundance Channel's the Green, which features blocks of environmental programming, including "Big Ideas for a Small Planet," and HGTV, which is offering up a 5,300-square foot South Carolina green home in its annual home-giveaway sweepstakes.

"This programming reflects what is going on in the overall social landscape," says Eileen O'Neill, Planet Green president and general manager. "People are being more active [in the green movement] than ever. We will have something for everyone. We like to say it will be like life, only greener."

The environment became a sexy cause after Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" earned big box-office numbers two years ago, says Robert Thompson, founder of the Bleier Center for Television and Pop Culture at Syracuse University. "One thing it did was get people to see dollar signs," he says. "Now the environment is entertainment, and 'green' can include a whole bunch of things, not just stats on the polar ice cap melting. As powerful as Hollywood is at conveying messages, though, it cannot lead people like a pied piper to become interested in something they are not."

Discovery executives began their project based in part on the viewership of the channel's 11-part series "Planet Earth," which aired last spring. It became the most-watched cable event of all time, with 65 million viewers.

However, not all media with an environmental message has been so popular. Last summer's broadcasts of Mr. Gore's Live Earth concerts fared poorly in the United States, capturing 2.7 million viewers.