QBID news
here is an article about QBID, I have also pasted the link below. Hard to believe this is only a 3 cent stock.
‘Bingo’ is big winner with viewers, advertisers
thedesertsun.com
By Nadia T. Villagran
The Desert Sun
July 8th, 2000
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PALM SPRINGS -- Lights. Camera. Action.
The number-calling begins and more than a million bingo lovers around the world crowd in front of their televisions and computers for the chance to win up to $50,000.
It’s one of the first fully interactive television game shows -- Bingo Television -- and Triangle Multi-Media Ltd.’s Palm Springs Television Studios Inc. is where it’s produced.
Filmed live Monday through Friday, Bingo Television is just that, an hour of televised number calling and bingo hysteria that leads up to “bingo, bingo, bingo” and grand prizes of $200 to $50,000.
Four games are played Monday through Thursday; On Fridays, three games are played, including a half-hour blackout game worth $50,000.
A nationally syndicated game show, Bingo Television, is also played worldwide on the Internet, said Matthew “Mr. Bingo” Bateman, one of the hosts of the show.
Bateman, along with Misha DeBono and Ted Dawson, has hosted the show since it was first broadcast in September.
Then the show was on once a week in eight test stations.
Bingo, however, was popular from the beginning and was quickly picked up by American Independent Network and aired on 50 stations from 11:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., Bateman said.
Today, the show airs on access prime time on the East Coast, from 7 to 8 p.m. and from 4 to 5 p.m. on the West Coast.
The game is played either on the Internet or on television. Players who get a bingo are instructed to type in the word bingo in the Web site chat room or call the station’s toll-free number.
Cash prizes are awarded to the first verified bingo winner. Ten consolation prizes are awarded to two Internet winners and eight telephone winners.
“We’ve had a winner in almost every state,” Bateman said. And the station recently had their first international winner from Canada.
Bingo Television is highly ranked by Internet bingo players.
According to BingoHerald.com’s opinion poll, Bingo Television is the second-best bingo Web site on the web this month, and has won the poll consistently for the last several months. The site ranks the top 30 bingo Web sites through viewer voting.
Margie LaMoreaux of Commerce, Mich., who loves bingo and plays Bingo Television weekly, wouldn’t even let a couple of bad checks stop her from trying to win again.
LaMoreaux won $500 from Bingo Television in February. In April she received a bad check and was sent another check in May. The second check also bounced, LaMoreaux said.
She eventually received cash from Bingo Television through Western Union, she said.
Bad checks were a nuisance but they haven’t stopped LaMoreaux from playing each week.
“I used to play two or three times a week,” she said. “I’ve been playing, but not as often. I won’t accept a check from them if I win.”
Bounced checks: Account changes were said to be the problem with the bounced checks, but Bateman assures it is a rare occurrence.
LaMoreaux hopes so, because the prize money is just too good to pass up, she explained.
“They have a lot of money there. Most of the other bingo sites don’t offer that kind of money,” she said.
And the site is free to participants, which is also a rarity, Dawson said.
The game show gets its prize money through advertisements. Along with national sponsors such as Mobil Gasoline and Blockbuster Video, the show’s sales team seeks advertisements from local businesses in the cities they broadcast.
All advertisers have the option of carrying bingo cards in their establishments, which ideally, will create more traffic for the business, said Dick Weiner, the show’s creator and executive producer.
Opportunities: A bingo game show is not a new idea for Weiner. He had a similar show in Hawaii for many years, but found new opportunities with the help of the Internet.
“With the change of the Internet I thought this would be a very good interactive game for everyone,” Weiner said. “And it builds traffic for retailers
Weiner is considering possible game-show expansions into other countries as well as a Spanish-language show.
And Weiner, who is a founder of Triangle Multi-Media, has plans for the television station as well.
He and Dawson, the station manager, are negotiating a deal to create a CBS affiliate in Palm Springs.
Those negotiations are still premature, however. |
