MSNBC creates banner for documentaries

June 24, 2008 MSNBC is creating MSNBC Films, a banner that will serve as a financing instrument for feature-length documentaries and turn the cable channel into more of a player in the feature world. While each deal will be structured differently, the news network could contribute to everything from development and production for new films to marketing and P&A for a movie's theatrical release. MSNBC now commissions docu-style programming like its "Lockup" series and also has bought TV rights to a select number of theatrical docus, such as Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me." But this move will increase the number of feature-length docs on the net from about three per year to as many as six.

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