THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 1, 1995 TAG: 9502010436
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
International Family Entertainment Inc., continuing an aggressive overseas expansion, has signed a deal to distribute its television programs in Asia over the next three years.
Beach-based IFE, parent of The Family Channel, said Tuesday that its joint venture with Hong Kong's United Film and Video Holdings Ltd. will target more than 15 Asian nations, including the Philippines, Japan and China.
Stephen D. Lentz, an IFE senior vice president, said that Asia is and will be for many years the fastest-growing market in the world for TV programmers. ``This is a tremendously exciting proposition for us,'' he said.
IFE said it will take shows from its extensive libraries, dub them in native languages of Asian nations and distribute them to broadcasters, cable operators and satellite services. It and United will split revenues from the sale of ads during the programs.
Lentz declined to reveal IFE's projected revenues from the venture. He did say that IFE's startup costs will be less than $1 million and that the venture is expected to be profitable in its first year.
IFE's partner, United, is firmlypositioned in Asia. Through a joint venture, it produces and distributes TV programs in China and other Asian countries, as well as in some western markets.
Lentz said that the initial programs to be distributed under the venture are The Family Channel's ``Baby Races'' and IFE's MTM Entertainment show ``Xuxa,'' as well as 400 hours of programs from a previously announced IFE partnership in Australia. IFE has thousands of hours of other shows to tap. Its MTM library includes such classic TV series as ``The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' and ``St. Elsewhere.'' It also has a large library of British programming.
Besides the joint venture with United, Lentz said, IFE will continue to pursue plans to distribute The Family Channel network in Asia.
That network's launch in the United Kingdom in September 1993 was IFE's first major step outside the United States. The British venture has gradually been narrowing its losses thanks to increasing subscriber fees and ad revenues.
Separately on Tuesday, Lentz said that IFE's 16-month-old Cable Health Club network has increased its cable subscribership more than ninefold in the past two months, to nearly 5 million households nationwide. The expansion includes about 200,000 subscribers of Cox Cable Hampton Roads, beginning today.
Cable Health Club has benefited from new federal rules allowing cable operators to increase charges to customers when they add channels.
Cable operators that carry Cable Health Club get it for free because IFE is deriving its Cable Health Club revenues from ad and merchandise sales. by CNB