John Roche stirred things up the most with first-hand tales of target marketing his Bible video series. Theatrical release is about egotism. You just can't get enough bottoms in the seats to make it pay. The best thing is if you can figure out how to target your market really specifically. Find people who can get excited about target marketing, then go out into the grassroots and find the people who really care about your particular subject.
Every single topic requires finding a different niche.
There was much discussion, too, about how long is the natural life of documentary programming. We try to find films out of the market for a long time, repackage them, re-launch them as classic documentaries. Many can be re-released in new formats. We rarely license for less than five years. These films can and do have a long life.