Playboy Online and K-Tel International, Inc., Form Exclusive Online Music Partnership Alliance Largest Financial Pact Ever Formed by Playboy Online
Tuesday November 3, 9:02 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Playboy Enterprises, Inc.
CHICAGO, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Playboy Online and K-tel International, Inc. (Nasdaq: KTEL - news) today
announced a partnership to create a co-branded online music store that will feature an array of music products
for purchase by consumers around the world.
The companies also plan to initiate other exclusive Internet marketing and cross-promotional activities.
Under terms of the agreement, Playboy Online and K-tel will develop the ''Playboy/K-tel Music Store'' within
Playboy.com (http://www.playboy.com), Playboy's free Web site. The ''Playboy/K-tel Music Store,'' which
will be launched in time for the holiday shopping season, will feature more than 250,000 music titles, including
K-tel's proprietary music compilations. Besides purchasing CDs in virtually every music genre, visitors also will
be able to personally create customized CD compilations using K-tel's music master library.
The partnership is financially the largest pact ever formed by Playboy Online.
''Our alliance with K-tel could become the first seven-figure e-commerce deal struck by Playboy Online,''
said David Lalich, senior vice president of marketing for Playboy Online. ''A partnership of this magnitude
underscores how fast we're growing.''
''As traffic to our Web sites increase, e-commerce plays an increasingly important role in the financial
success of Playboy Online,'' said Christie A. Hefner, chairman and chief executive officer of Playboy
Enterprises, Inc. (PEI). ''We know that music is one of the most popular product lines purchased online, both
by Playboy.com visitors and Web users overall. That popularity makes this alliance with K-tel particularly
exciting for us.''
Philip Kives, chairman and CEO of K-tel International, said K-tel was attracted to Playboy Online because of
the company's powerful brand and Playboy.com's traffic. The site receives almost 60 million page views a
month and is ranked by Alexa as one of the Web's top 50 sites.
''Because of Playboy's brand and online traffic -- and our own brand recognition, product selection and
fulfillment experience -- we expect the ''Playboy/K-tel Music Store'' to compete with leading online music
services such as CDNow, Inc., N2K, Inc. and Amazon.com, Inc.,'' said Scott Blum, vice president of corporate
development for K-tel Express (www.ktel.com).
Added Kives: ''This joint venture combines two well-known and respected brand names in entertainment. We
are extremely pleased to be working with Playboy on this endeavor and are confident that our combined
venture will offer high-quality music products at competitive prices.''
The ''Playboy/K-tel Music Store'' will include the only Playboy-branded music offerings on Playboy.com,
although CCMusic (http://www.ccmusic.com) -- the online extension of PEI's successful Collectors' Choice
Music catalog -- also will continue to sell music in the re-issue and hard-to-find- collectible categories through
the site.
Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: PLA - news) is an international multimedia entertainment company that
publishes editions of Playboy magazine around the globe; creates programming for Playboy TV networks and
home video distribution around the world; operates a direct marketing business, including Critics' Choice Video,
Collectors' Choice Music, Playboy and Spice catalogs and Web sites; markets Playboy-branded consumer
products sold worldwide; operates Playboy Online, which includes the Playboy.com and Playboy Cyber Club
Web sites; and plans to open the Playboy Casino & Beach Hotel on the Greek island of Rhodes.
K-tel International, Inc., is a vertically integrated developer, marketer and distributor of a wide array of
entertainment and consumer products worldwide. The Company markets its product lines to retailers,
wholesalers, distributors and licensees across the globe, or directly to the consumer via the internet, television
and other forms of direct response media. K-tel has active operations in the United States, Canada, the United
Kingdom, Germany and Finland.
SOURCE: Playboy Enterprises, Inc.
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