Coda
By Staff -- Multichannel News, 12/7/2009 2:00:00 AM
'MCN,’ 'B&C,’ 'TWICE’ Sold
New York — NewBay Media LLC, a publisher of trade magazines here including Television Broadcast and TV Technology, said last week that it has acquired Multichannel News, Broadcasting & Cable and This Week In Consumer Electronics (TWICE) magazines and their Web sites from Reed Business Information-U.S. for an undisclosed sum.
Each title will continue to be published in NewBay’s line of print, online and in-person products and services, said the buyer, owned by private-equity firm The Wicks Group of Cos.
NewBay’s other titles include Videography, DV Magazine, Radio World and Residential Systems.
The addition of the three newly acquired brands extends NewBay Media’s reach in the broadcast television and consumer electronics markets. Among other brand extensions, NewBay Media publishes the show daily at the National Association of Broadcasters’ annual convention.
“We’re truly excited to have the opportunity to work with this talented team and to have these market-leading brands join the NewBay family,” NewBay Media CEO Steve Palm said in a statement. “This acquisition further demonstrates NewBay’s commitment to our goal of delivering value to our advertisers, readers and partners in these critical markets. With this acquisition, NewBay adds significant depth and breadth to its existing portfolio of broadcast properties.”
RBI’s parent company, Reed Elsevier, said in July it intended to sell much of its RBI-US division, including Multichannel News, B&C and TWICE, after unsuccessfully attempting to sell all of RBI in 2008. These are the first magazines the company has been able to sell in the latest process.
RBI-US said it plans to retain some U.S. properties, including Variety and research firm MarketCast.
“We are pleased that our valuable brands have found a great new home with NewBay Media,” RBI-US CEO John Poulin said in a statement. “We’re certain that these titles will thrive under Steve Palm’s capable and experienced management team. We wish them much success ahead.”
The Wicks Group owns and operates several radio and television stations across the country. NewBay Media’s brands are centered on five vertical markets: pro audio, broadcast and video, musical instruments, A/V-consumer electronics, and K-12 education.
NewBay annually publishes and produces more than 40 publications and show dailies, 50 Web sites, 30 daily and weekly e-newsletters, three Expos and more than 50 custom publishing efforts. NewBay said it reaches more than 3 million readers in print and 1 million online and in person, in more than 100 countries.
In addition to its New York headquarters, NewBay has offices in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, London and Milan.
— Mike Farrell
ABC Family Rings In Xmas Push
New York — ’Tis the season for ABC Family’s perennial “25 Days of Christmas” programming stunt.
Gearing up for what is traditionally its strongest month of the year with the Nielsens, ABC Family’s 12th rendition of the event will total some 200 hours of programming from Dec. 1 through Christmas, accompanied by a host of marketing and affiliate support.
This year’s lineup includes the original telefilm Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe, as well as an array of movies, holiday specials and Rankin/Bass classics.
“It’s a holiday-rich programming mix that the whole family can watch,” ABC Family vice president of marketing Danielle Mullin said.
To drive awareness, the network again has rolled a local ad sales initiative behind the programming marathon.
Over 250 affiliates, whose systems reach some 64 million households, have committed to running cross-channel spots. More than 275 local prizes will be given away during the in-store and online promotional period through Dec. 26. Consumers can enter either in-store at point-of-purchase displays or online at www.25daysofchristmassweeps.com.
In addition to the cross-channel promos, with an estimated media value of $5.5 million, ABC Family has amassed myriad media platforms behind 25 Days.
“With this being our biggest programming event of the year, we are naturally supporting it with one of our biggest marketing initiatives,” Mullin said.
Tactics extend to network and spot cable, spot radio and Radio Disney, and national print.
ABC Family is supplementing the diverse campaign with a curtain-raiser of support behind its Santa Baby 2 telefilm. Today (Dec. 7) in Manhattan’s Bryant Park, ABC Family will attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of Kris Kringle’s “elves.”
ABC Family staffers and executives, joined by the movie’s stars, will hand out elfin costumes to the crowd. The goal: a Guinness-record gathering of over 250 elves.
“ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas is the biggest event in cable, so it’s only appropriate that this is the biggest event we’ve undertaken as a network,” Mullin said. “We want this to be a great family event.”
— Mike Reynolds
Comcast Tests Usage Meter
Portland, Ore. — More than a year after instituting an “excessive usage” cap for all of its broadband customers, Comcast is launching a usage-metering pilot for subscribers in Portland, Ore., that will let them track how much Internet bandwidth they consume.
All of Comcast’s high-speed Internet customers in Portland will receive e-mail messages informing them that the meter is available via their account details on the Customer Central Web portal.
“Our hope is that people will see how little data they actually consume, and have some comfort that they’re not even close to the limit,” Comcast director of corporate communications Charlie Douglas said. “If you have to ask if you’re an excessive user, you probably aren’t one.”
Comcast’s 250-Gigabyte-per-month usage limit went into effect Oct. 1, 2008. Douglas said the operator had to build the usage meter from scratch and verify its accuracy before rolling it out to customers.
— Todd Spangler
Rogers Introduces Net Video Service
Toronto — Canadian cable and wireless operator Rogers Communications last week debuted the beta version of On Demand Online, an Internet video service with more than 1,000 hours of TV shows, movies, music, sports and other content from 17 broadcast and studio partners, available at no extra charge to all of its subscribers.
Subscribers to any Rogers service — cable TV, home phone, broadband or wireless phone service — can register at www.rogersondemand.com to view content free from any streaming Internet connection within Canada. Rogers Cable customers will be able to access a selection of specialty programming online that corresponds to their cable TV subscription package.
The initial beta version of Rogers On Demand Online will include aggregated content from 17 broadcast and production partners and 30 channels, including Rogers-owned Citytv, Rogers Sportsnet, Setanta Sports, MTV Networks’ Spike TV, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Food Network Canada, HGTV Canada, Big Ten Network, G4 Canada, Treehouse and the National Film Board of Canada.
Rogers also announced that Starcom MediaVest Group, on behalf of clients including Research In Motion, Kellogg’s, Kraft and Samsung Electronics, has signed an exclusive launch advertising sponsorship deal for the Web TV service.
— Todd Spangler
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