THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 24, 1995 TAG: 9505240470
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
International Family Entertainment Inc. is interested in building a music-variety theater in Virginia Beach, but several other cities around the country are closer to nabbing one first, IFE President Timothy B. Robertson said Tuesday.
``We would love to do one here, and the city has been incredibly helpful to us,'' Robertson said in an interview after IFE's annual shareholders meeting. ``The problem is we need a developer to step up.''
Beach-based IFE, parent company of The Family Channel, got into the music-theater business in 1993 when it bought assets of Calvin Gilmore Productions of Myrtle Beach, S.C. It renamed the operation Great American Entertainment, which includes two theaters in the Myrtle Beach area and a soon-to-be-opened complex in Charleston, S.C.
The theaters feature a variety of live music, including country, early rock 'n' roll, gospel, show tunes and comedy.
Robertson said IFE wants a real estate developer to spearhead the building of any new theaters. He didn't identify other cities that IFE is considering, but said the company is talking with developers elsewhere, some of which plan to build larger dining, entertainment and shopping complexes that would include a music theater.
Separately, Robertson said IFE is shopping for a new home base for its one other foothold in live entertainment: the Ice Capades. The ice show is headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., but IFE has talked with several theme-park operators, including Anheuser-Busch Cos.' Busch Gardens unit, about basing the show in a park.
At the annual meeting, Robertson said IFE executives are hoping that a recently signed agreement with Hallmark Entertainment to create a Sunday night movie showcase for The Family Channel will help build that channel's ratings and ad revenues. IFE wants to use the showcase to heavily promote other shows on its schedule, he said.
The first of six original movies now planned under the Hallmark deal, ``Kidnapped,'' based on the classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, will start filming next month. It will star Christopher Reeve.
While IFE's stock price, just under $17 a share, is up about 12 percent over the past year, it's still well below its historic high. Robertson said IFE is projecting a 35 percent increase in operating cash flow this year, however, as it narrows losses at its British version of The Family Channel and at its Cable Health Club network.
``Hopefully, that will have a reflection on the overall stock price going forward,'' he said.
Within five years, IFE is projecting that Cable Health Club will be generating cash flow of $15 million a year, he said. If it comes true, he said, that business will be worth about $150 million.
He also said IFE is exploring the idea of creating a service on the global Internet computer network that will distribute information about family-oriented entertainment programming.
At Tuesday's meeting, IFE shareholders took a number of other measures:
They re-elected five directors, including Robertson and his father, Pat, who is chairman of the board, and elected one new director, Lowell W. Morse. Morse, who chairs a chain of bagel shops and a fast-food restaurant chain, is also on the board of Regent University, which Pat Robertson founded and chairs.
Shareholders approved an increase in authorized shares of all three classes of IFE common stock and an increase in the number of shares in the company's incentive plan for management and employees.
They rejected a plan to authorize additional shares of preferred stock. Tele-Communications Inc., through a subsidiary, is the only current holder of preferred stock. TCI consented to the plan, which IFE said would be helpful in acquiring other businesses. But some other institutional shareholders voted no. by CNB