April
24, 2001
Viacom's
Entry Into China Revolves Around Reciprocity
Viacom
has signed a landmark deal with China to launch Nickelodeon
in 40 million Chinese households the first of May. The
company looks forward to building a base in China, recognizing
that in the next decade, some 65% of the people worldwide
under 35, will be living in Asia.
Viacom is already bringing MTV to China under a 3-year
pact. But their presence in China, along with the only
other U.S. brand, Encore International, revolves around
offers of reciprocity to the Chinese government. Both
companies will carry a block of news programming produced
by CCTV--China Central Television (the only national broadcasting
network)--into American homes.
In short, in exchange for acting as ambassadors of goodwill
and cultural exchange, Viacom and Encore International
were welcomed into China.
The
payoff should be huge, as China is the world's largest
television market, based on the 300 million homes with
TV sets--that's three times as many television households
as in the United States.
MTV now co-produces the Mandarin Music Honours in partnership
with CCTV. Viacom says that three times as many people
watched the Mandarin awards show in China on CCTV as tuned
in to the SuperBowl on Viacom's CBS network.
Viacom is considering bringing the Mandarin programming
to the United States, to reach some of the 50 million
Chinese living outside of China.
-
Frequent
flyer miles, as noted in the past, have become a currency of their
own. If you're looking for ways to use your miles, consider FlyerTalk.com.
They have a Mileage Run forum where frequent-flyer fanatics share
information that enables one to add the most miles, and learn
other tricks of the trade.
-
NBCi, which
spun off its small business portal AllBusiness to online barter
company BigVine.com, is being purchased by NBC and then closing
its doors.
NBC's CFO Mark Begor and NBCi's chairman Will Lansing said the
decision was made because advertising on the internet has virtually
collapsed. Lansing also said that the portal business isn't viable.
(NBCi ranked 13th among global media web networks, with 20.5 million
unique visitors in January, according to Jupiter Media Metrix.)
-
Michael Jordan
does another barter deal, this time with Upper Deck which produces
and markets trading cards and memorabilia. In exchange for joining
Upper Deck's board of directors, Jordan will receive an undisclosed
stake in the Carlsbad, California, based company.
-
At the ITEX
Annual Shareholders Meeting held April 4 in Sacramento, CEO Collie
Christensen announced that the company has finally turned its
focus from solving financial and legal problems, created in the
past, to expanding its retail trade exchange...its core business
in the future.
He also revealed that the recent purchase of the Canadian assets
of Ubarter.com has added to ITEX's optimism for the future, as
the trade volume in the first four week cycle of the new ITEX
Toronto office reflected a three-fold increase over Ubarter's
final month of operations with the same clients.
-
King World
Productions, the syndication unit of CBS, has made a deal for
Crime Scene Investigation, the popular new drama which
airs on CBS. They are bartering "CSI" reruns to local television
stations for a weekend run, in return for a percentage of advertising
inventory which is then being aggregately packaged and sold to
Viacom's National Network--reportedly for about $1.6 million per
episode.
-
Looking for
fancy decor, but don't have the money for colorful contemporary
paintings that bespeak the pricey touch of a decorator? Try soliciting
local artists to assist them with their hard-to-store oversized
canvases. Such an exchange, use of your company's halls for temporary
"storage" of their artwork, enables your office to become a gallery
of sorts for local artists.
- PlayersNetwork.com,
a broadband gaming and entertainment internet portal, reported approximately
$307,000 in revenues last year from bartering production services
and advertising spots in exchange for magazine advertising, up from
$102,000 in 1999.
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