News You Can Use From Rainbow Media
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, April 4, 2005 – At today's NCTA, Rainbow Media announced several booth events and programming initiatives designed to demonstrate its ongoing leadership in programming innovation on both its linear and VOD services and to celebrate its popular and well known entertainment brands – AMC, IFC, WE, Mag Rack, sportskool and fuse.
These announcements are part of Rainbow's 2005 National Show focus on highlighting its advances and vision for VOD and its continued commitment to work closely with operators in developing creative solutions to help drive sales of high speed, telephony and broadband.
Rainbow Media's National Show booth #1629 is dubbed "The Control Room" where Rainbow is raising the bar on VOD with previews of its innovative on demand services, along with a sneak peek at some never before seen product.
Day Two Booth Events:
NATIONAL SHOW EVENT INFORMATION FROM WE: WOMEN'S ENTERTAINMENT, Monday, April 4, 3:00 – 4:00 pm
JENNY MCCARTHY JOINS IN BRIDEZILLAS CELEBRATION
Actress Jenny McCarthy (Scary Movie 3, BASEketball) will join WE: Women's Entertainment to celebrate the second season launch of the network's popular series Bridezillas. WE will host four bouquet tosses, especially for cable/satellite distributors, with a champagne toast and customized cupcakes, at the Rainbow Media booth (#1629) from 3-4 pm on Monday, April 4. WE will award an Apple iPOD to each of the four distributors that catch the bouquet. Starting on Sunday, April 3rd, distributors will are eligible to enter a grand prize drawing to win a second honeymoon trip for two to Puerto Rico. The trip is a three-night getaway to Carolina, Puerto Rico with accommodations at the new boutique hotel, The Water Club. The package includes roundtrip airfare, transportation, daily breakfast, and dinner at a five-star restaurant. The drawing will be held at 4pm on Monday. The winner must be present to claim the trip.
In order to drive show patrons to the booth, WE, with the help of Multichannel News, will blast a message to attendees' Blackberry devices. Season two of Bridezillas premieres on Sunday, June 12 at 10 pm ET.
NATIONAL SHOW EVENT INFORMATION FROM MAG RACK
Monday, April 4, 4:00 – 5:30 pm
SPECIAL HAPPY HOUR AT RAINBOW BOOTH
Rainbow's original on demand network, Mag Rack, will host a happy hour at the Rainbow Media booth (#1629) from 4:00-5:30 pm on Monday, April 4. During the reception, Mag Rack will unveil four new promos for its new on-air look and tagline, "TV For Whatever Turns You On." The promos showcase enthusiast appreciation for Mag Rack programming. A grand prize Harley Davidson Motorcycle, to tout Mag Rack's "Motorcycle Freedom," will be raffled on Sunday and Monday and awarded at the happy hour. Wine and healthy hors d'eouvres will be served, and recipe books will be handed out, courtesy of Mag Rack's new cooking program, "Smart Carb Gourmet."
Day Two News:
NEWS FROM AMC
MOVIE CLUB WITH JOHN RIDLEY RENEWED
As a home base for movie lovers, AMC has expanded its commitment to original programming in 2005 by continuing to produce series and documentaries that resonate with audiences by connecting them to Hollywood and movie culture. The network announced today that it has ordered eight additional episodes of its original series "Movie Club with John Ridley." This marks the second season of the series on AMC, which will premiere on Friday, May 20 at 11 pm ET/PT, in time for the studio's summer releases. The series is a weekly movie review show that offers viewers a guide to upcoming theatrical and DVD releases from the unique perspective of filmmaker/screenwriter John Ridley and his movie reviewer guests. "Movie Club with John Ridley" was created by John Davies and is executive produced by Davies and Sandy Wernick.
NEWS FROM IFC
Z CHANNEL: A MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION PREMIERES ON NETWORK
Last Spring, IFC made cable history, when Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession was named as an official selection of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, marking the festival's first documentary produced exclusively for a cable network. IFC announced today the documentary will premiere on Monday, May 9 at 9 pm ET. In addition to adopting the look of the Z Channel from the 1970s/80s, IFC will host a Z Channel film festival weekend, May 14 and 15 beginning at 8 pm: Saturday, 5/14 – Z Channel at 8 pm, "Heaven's Gate" at 10 pm (director's cut); Sunday, 5/15 – "Salvador" at 8 pm, "Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession" at 10 pm, and "The Important Thing is Love" at 12:15 am.
NEWS FROM RAINBOW MEDIA
AD SALES STAFFING ANNOUNCMENTS
Rainbow Media announced two valuable staff changes within its advertising sales department. Helen Karas has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Eastern Sales, reporting to Arlene Manos, President of National Ad Sales for AMC and WE: Women's Entertainment. She is responsible for all national ad sales agreements in New York, as well as in the Southeast and Midwest states for both AMC and WE. Previously, Karas served as Vice President, Eastern Sales. She joined RASCO in 2002 from ABC Family where she was Vice President of Ad Sales. Additionally, Steve Luttinger has been hired as Vice President of Pricing and Planning, also reporting to Arlene Manos. In his role, Luttinger will be responsible for setting revenue guidelines for AMC and WE's commercial inventory and maximizing the network's advertising revenue. He was previously the Director of Pricing and Planning at the NBC/PAX joint venture, which followed a position as Director of Pricing at NBC.
About Rainbow Media Holdings LLC
A leader in sports, news and entertainment programming, Rainbow Media Holdings LLC is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation. Rainbow owns and manages national networks: AMC, Fuse, IFC (The Independent Film Channel) and WE: Women's Entertainment, as well as on-demand networks including Mag Rack and sportskool. Rainbow's other businesses include its regional programming services — MetroChannels, News 12 Networks and Rainbow Sports Networks – in addition to the Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation and Rainbow Network Communications. Rainbow is a 50 percent partner in Fox Sports Net.