To: Henry Hayashi who wrote (3890 ) 1/12/1999 12:27:00 AM From: C Respond to of 27722
Henry <<O.T. re. VVTV>> Here is a link to the press release from earlier today that you referred to............biz.yahoo.com Monday January 11, 5:15 pm Eastern Time Company Press Release SOURCE: ValueVision International, Inc. ValueVision International, Inc. Announces 5-Year Programming Agreement With WHCT (TV), Hartford-New Haven, CT Agreement to Add Approximately 550,000 New Full-Time Equivalent Cable Homes To Existing Subscriber Base MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ ValueVision International, Inc. (Nasdaq: VVTV - news), an integrated electronic and print media direct marketing company, today announced it has entered into a 5-year programming agreement for its television home shopping business with WHCT (TV) Channel 18, to broadcast the company's television home shopping programming on a full-time basis commencing January 11, 1999. The station serves the Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut area, which represents the 27th largest ADI (Area of Dominant Influence) in the nation, and reaches a total broadcast market of approximately 916,000 households. The station's signal is simulcast via 15 cable companies reaching an aggregate of approximately 578,000 cable system subscribers. This agreement represents approximately 550,000 FTE (full-time equivalent) cable homes. ''Today's announcement is just another step forward in the ongoing growth and improvement of our television home shopping business, which is continuing to achieve significant financial gains day-by-day,'' said Gene McCaffrey, Chief Executive Officer of ValueVision. ''We are excited about the continuing expansion of our subscriber base, especially in this new market, and look forward to continuing to aggressively expand our cable household distribution. With a strong, debt-free balance sheet, sales growth and increasingly positive results from our electronic commerce business, ValueVision is on-track to return our television home shopping operations to profitability in the fourth fiscal quarter ending January 31, 1999.'' ValueVision International, Inc. is an integrated electronic and print media direct marketing company, and operates a television home-shopping network and multi-book catalog operation. The Company offers live programming 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. Approximately 21.5 million homes are able to receive ValueVision's programming of which approximately 11.0 million homes are on a full-time basis and another 10.5 million are on a part-time basis. ValueVision's full-time equivalent cable homes increased 26% from 11.7 million at January 31, 1998 to 14.7 million at January 11, 1999. In addition, the Company operates several direct mail operations and an Internet shopping website (www.vvtv.com). The Company's shares are traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol VVTV. For additional information on ValueVision please visit the Company's web site at vvtv.com or by fax, at no cost, dial 1-800-PRO-INFO, and enter code VVTV. (Note: The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a ''safe harbor'' for forward-looking statements. Certain information included in this news release and verbal communications contain statements that are forward- looking, such as statements relating to increased cable distribution, increased sales and the operating profitability of the Company's television home shopping business. There are certain important factors that could cause results to differ materially from those anticipated statements. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty, including the possibility that cable home distribution and sales will not increase and that improved operating profitability will not be achieved. For more information on the potential factors that could affect the Company's financial results, investors should refer to the Company's recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K.) SOURCE: ValueVision International, Inc.