LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwired - Jun 17, 2014) - Players Network (
Dear Shareholders, we wanted to take this opportunity to report on the growth strategy for the WeedTv Channel Destination to become the primary go to source of information, entertainment, products and services for the Cannabis Community. This is an incredible growth industry sector expected to increase from $1.5 billion to over $8.0 billion in sales over the next 5 years. Economist Stephen Easton stated he estimates that the legalized marijuana industry will grow to $45 billion to over a $100 billion business sector. In addition, the dynamics of both Marijuana Industry and Cannabis Social Community are extremely well suited as a Channel Category for Players Network's NextGenTV (SM) .
These factors include:
- Easily Identifiable core market group and customer base.
- Rich source of content to produce and aggregate that is relevant to the target consumer group.
- Large number of potential advertisers and sponsors who wish access to this audience.
- First mover position as a broadcast television network allowing for increased market share.
- Availability of merchandise opportunities for increased revenue.
- Extremely high growth market with a large number of new companies looking for advertising outlets.
- Digital friendly target audience that has a high percentage of social media engagement.
Growth Strategy for WeedTV
Since the Company announced that it was creating a "Marijuana Channel" the Company has successfully completed several agreements and venture partnerships to advance the marketing, growth and revenue strategy for the WeedTV Lifestyle Channel Destination. One of the most significant accomplishments was acquiring a super premium domain that is possible the best domain for the execution of this business plan (" www.weedtv.com ") and will provide PNTV a significant competitive advantage.
The Company will focus on the following initiatives for WeedTV moving forward:
- Generate Traditional Advertising Sales bundling the WeedTV website, social media, live events and WeedTV Magazine. The joint venture with DMH Media Network provides immediate reach to over 2.6 million readers providing a critical mass to obtain immediate sponsors and advertising interest as well as numerous cross promotional opportunities as we build weedtv.com traffic.
- Launch an Expanded Financial Section to include three categories. General News; The Cannabis Public Company Index and Special Correspondent Section. The Public Company Index will include a free listing as well as premium ad space. The dual goal is to drive additional revenue as well as to develop strategic business relationships with industry leaders.
- Create Live Events with promoter partners . The Company has extraordinary relationships with leading music promoters such as Uneek Music. WeedTv will seek to participate in events like the recent Wiz Khalifia April 27 th Concert. As a co-production partner the Company will expect to generate a profit from the live event through ticket sales and sponsorships as well as providing content for marketing and live streaming events. Artists like Wiz Khalifia, Snoop and TI have tens of millions of fans in their social media fan base creating multiple opportunities. Live and taped Streaming events will initially be offered on a free basis to drive traffic to weedtv.com supported by CPM advertising and sponsors. The Company also intends special premium events on a pay for view basis in the future. Promotion of the event provides additional sponsorship sales opportunities as well as the ability to drive traffic to weedtv.com.
- Expand WeedTv Shopping Section , incorporating an advertising revenue strategy. The WeedTV shopping section will be structured as a mall creating sections and pages for each vendor partner. This combines advertising and percentage of gross sales model for PNTV. Vendors will pay a monthly advertising fee to secure their section ("Store Front") and support cooperative marketing efforts plus a percentage of gross sales as consideration for WeedTv generating and processing the order. The initial goal would be to obtain up to 100 vendor partners or merchants in the WeedTV Virtual Shopping Mall paying monthly rates from $400 to over $2,500 per month depending on size, placement and exclusivity of their section, plus a percentage of gross sales generated. There will also be a WeedTV General Store for products offered directly by the Company. The Company General Store will focus on branded and licensed merchandise with marketing partners. By way of example if the Company offered a shirt or glass pipe co-branded with a music artist like Wiz Khalifia or Snoop, this would provide an incentive for the artist to promote WeedTV in their social media driving both traffic and revenue to the Company.
- Recruit Key Social Media Opinion Leaders for expanded content. Just as in the Financial section where there will be Special Correspondents for; Political, Cooking, Growing, Weed 101 and Celebrity correspondents moving forward. The Company is recruiting industry experts with existing social media followings to cross promote with WeedTV. By way of example a radio personality with a following who can direct their audience to weedtv.com for both free and premium video content.
- Contests for promotional opportunities to drive traffic and awareness to weedtv.com. These include user generated content contest such as best cooking tip or growing tip as well as Celebrity VIP meet and greets at WeedTv events and Membership drive campaigns.
Players Network has been laying the groundwork over the past few years with a foundation of technology and relationships to build our Channel Destinations. The Cannabis Community is a diverse industry with social, medical, hard goods, manufacturing and tremendous growth potential. The Cannabis Community is also tremendously welcoming and excited about having their own television network and in turn supportive of our plans and initiates. This is an exciting time for Shareholders and the Company's Management looks forward to reporting even greater success and milestones completed to grow revenue and increase shareholder value.
Thank you your support and belief in what we are creating. Sincerely,
Mark Bradley CEO Players Network
About WeedTV:
Weed TV is a Lifestyle Channel Destination powered by PNTV's NextGenTV(SM) enterprise platform. WeedTv will be the go to source for informational, entertainment, products and services for people who relate to the marijuana lifestyle and social community. Weed TV will feature daily stories sourced by weedtv.com correspondents and contributors from around the world. It will provide a wide variety of editorial content, videos and entertainment including lead stories, political news, business news on the industry, financial analysis from industry experts, growing tips, cooking tips, a "Weed101" section, medical uses, lifestyle features, entertainment specials and merchandise shopping cart offering the latest products and services.
About Players Network:
Players Network is a Television and Digital New Media Company that uses its proprietary Enterprise Web Platform to develop numerous Branded Digital Lifestyle Networks for itself and its partners in a wide range of lifestyle categories. Players Network's current original channels, "Players Network", "Vegas on Demand", "Real Vegas TV", focus on Las Vegas and Gaming Lifestyles and the newest Channel is "WeedTV". They are distributed over PNTV's owned and operated VOD Channels on TV in over 23,000,000 homes over Comcast, its Broadband Network and Mobile Platforms, on Hulu, Google, YouTube, Blinkx and Yahoo Video, on DVD, and through worldwide television syndication. For more information please visit www.playersnetwork.com
Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act: With the exception of the historical information contained in this Release, the matters described herein contain forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties that may individually or mutually impact the matters herein described, including but not limited to: the ability of the Company to increase revenues in the future due to the developing and unpredictable markets for its products, the ability to achieve a positive cash flow, the ability to obtain orders for or install its products, the ability to obtain new customers and the ability to continue to commercialize its products, which could cause actual results or revenues to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements.
Parker Mitchell 702-575-0157
