The E. W. Scripps Company and Jewelry Television have reached an agreement that will result in Jewelry Television acquiring certain assets of the Shop At Home television network. Jewelry Television will pay Scripps $17 million for fixed assets, including Shop At Home’s building and real estate, satellite uplink facilities, information technology systems, the network’s call center, Web site and production studios. Jewelry Television also intends to assume a number of agreements that Shop At Home has with broadcast television stations and operators of cable and satellite television systems to carry the network’s programming. The transaction is expected to close by month’s end. Jewelry Television announced that it intends to continue scale down operations of Shop At Home.
Incredible Discoveries announced it is working with a funding group that is in the process of looking for potential infomercial products to co-fund for the 2007 television season. Through the use of its “Get Discovered” Web site, businesses can fill out a short feasibility questionnaire to see if their product meets the basic criteria for possible infomercial funding.
The Dual Drill, marketed worldwide by Global Infomercial Services LLC, and in the United States, Canada and Mexico by Reliant International Media Ltd., is quickly gaining worldwide sales due to Global Infomercial’s Global Rollout system. Global Infomercial Services uses distributors including Global Alliance members, such as Oak Lawn Marketing in Japan, Shop Australia in Australia and New Zealand, Vector Direct in the UK and Vector Versand in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. New countries airing the show are Bosnia, Croatia, Dubai, India, Iran, Philippines, Serbia and Spain. In addition, Latin America has just started airing the show, to be followed by Azerbaijan, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey.
MyNetworkTV, the new primetime general entertainment broadcast network, and ION Media Networks have entered into an affiliation agreement for WPXX-TV in Memphis, Tennessee. Through the agreement, WPXX will bring MyNetworkTV programming to the nation’s 44th largest television market. Currently operated by ION under a time brokerage agreement, WPXX serves more than 500,000 households in the Memphis metropolitan area. Scheduled to launch on Sept. 5, 2006, MyNetworkTV is now cleared in 150 markets, including 26 of the top 30, representing 85 percent of U.S. television households. Twelve hours of programming will air on MyNetworkTV Monday through Saturday.
Cmedia announced that CEO and founder Michelle Cardinal received the “Woman Entrepreneur of the Year” Orchid Award by the Portland Business Journal. Ms. Cardinal was selected among more than 200 nominees for her outstanding professional accomplishments and civic involvement, which includes building Cmedia from a start-up agency into one of the nation’s largest direct response television media firms.
LiveOps, a provider of distributed contact centers, has appointed Michaella Cox as director of sales. Ms. Cox brings more than a decade of experience creating strategic and groundbreaking direct response campaigns for Fortune 500 companies and infomercial leaders. She previously served as vice president of direct response vertical for Westgate Financial. Before that, Ms. Cox served as chief operating officer for Mindstorm Technologies and was president of eBound Strategies. She also served as director of e-commerce for Video Professor.
Euro RSCG 4D recently hired Jason Graves as director of business development. Mr. Graves comes to Euro RSCG 4D DRTV with an extensive history in the DRTV industry, most recently as executive vice president of Williams Worldwide Television, and vice president of new business at Hawthorne Direct’s West Coast office. Mr. Graves is based in the company’s Carlsbad, California office.
Williams Worldwide Television (WWTV) has named Zhen Sun as operations manager. Mr. Sun’s responsibilities will include maintaining and managing overall manufacturing relationships, developing and managing the company’s order processing and fulfillment as well as logistics operations. Prior to joining WWTV, he served at Ronco Corp. from July 2004 to May 2006, during which time he was responsible for developing and implementing global sourcing strategies and business plans, executing sourcing initiatives and negotiating agreements with major suppliers.
WorldLink has named Mary C. Pouliopoulos as executive vice president of sales and marketing at WorldLink. In her new position, Ms. Pouliopoulos, who was formerly in a senior sales position with TWC Media Solutions/The Weather Channel, will be responsible for the day-to-day sales operations of WorldLink. Additionally, she will oversee marketing campaigns to heighten awareness of WorldLink and its media and agency clients worldwide.
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