LAS VEGAS — Williams Worldwide Television, Santa Monica, CA, said yesterday at the 10th annual Electronic Retailing Association Conference and Exposition that it is in talks with ESPN and CBS-Telemundo to include these networks among 18 others that are part of its Media Uno program. Media Uno is an infomercial network that gives U.S. direct response television companies easier access to Latin America.
In order to reach the increasingly profitable Latin American market, DRTV marketers cannot simply buy more media time for their spots and infomercials as they can in the United States. Because of economic and operational differences, agreements must be reached directly with television networks, not with satellite or cable operators. This is a much more arduous process and has necessitated the invention of secondary infomercial networks that distribute their inventory in key regions of Latin America.
The Williams announcement came just a few weeks after its competitor in the realm — Thane Inc.'s Latin American infomercial network, Pan LatinoTV — announced that it, too, had signed an agreement with ESPN and CBS-Telemundo.
In a little more than a year, Media Uno has reached agreements with 18 distributors in the region and has increased its coverage of the area to 100 percent of available cable households.
