News > Online shopping sites for six programs
December 1, 2006
Via :
NEW YORK -- Entertainment Media Works' StarStyle.com has signed an exclusive agreement with Showtime to build online shopping sites for all six of the network's original programs and also announced deals with ABC, 20th Century Fox TV, Lionsgate Television and Bunim-Murray Prods. that allow TV viewers to purchase products and props featured on their shows.
The deals, which cover ABC's "Brothers & Sisters," 20th TV's "The Simple Life," Lionsgate-produced "Wildfire" and "Weeds" as well as "Real World/Road Rules Challenge" from Bunim-Murray, are the first announced by StarStyle since it teamed with FremantleMedia and 19 Television in March to power "American Idol's" shopping site. In addition to "Weeds," the other Showtime shows StarStyle will build sites for are "The L Word," "Dexter," "Sleeper Cell: American Terror," "The Tudors" and "Brotherhood." StarStyle also signed a deal with 51 Minds for VH1's "The Flavor of Love."
EMW also said that it has hired CAA to find more production outfits and networks interested in building shopping sites. The company also said it recently signed a deal with Virgin Mobile to enable consumers to browse through a mobile version of StarStyle.com and bookmark products they want to purchase; consumers still need to sign on to StarStyle on the Web to purchase the tagged items.
"EMW goes beyond StarStyle.com by syndicating commerce opportunities through its StarStyle Network to entertainment portals, retailers, mobile carriers and soon to iTV," EMW CEO Ashley Heather said. "These initiatives bring a new and significant revenue stream to media owners and publishers who are typically reliant on ad revenue alone."
Heather said StarStyle also has signed deals with Universal Music Group, Sony BMG and EMI/Virgin to sell apparel and accessories featured in the music videos of more than two dozen artists, including Gwen Stefani, the Pussycat Dolls, Nelly Furtado, Mary J. Blige and Brooke Hogan.
To promote StarStyle, EMW fashion experts will host regular promotional segments on "Extra" and TV Guide Channel's "Fashion Team." EMW has started syndicating viral videos featuring behind-the-scenes interviews with celebrities and designers on hundreds of fashion and entertainment sites, including TV.com, SheFinds.com and TVGuide.com, Heather said.
Meanwhile, StarStyle competitor Delivery Agent recently announced the launch of its own site, www.SeenOn.com, where consumers can buy products and props featured on the TV shows and movies with which it has partnered. Delivery Agent previously powered shopping microsites only on network or show Web sites, not its own.
Delivery Agent said its SeenOn site features new "shopisodes" -- video clips from shows that consumers can browse to find and buy products; an exclusive insider blog written by top designers and stylists, including Cate Adair and Karo Vartanian from ABC's "Desperate Housewives," Mimi Melgaard from "Grey's Anatomy" and Tim Gunn from Bravo's "Project Runway"; and a search mechanism to look for products by show, movie, actor or product type.
Delivery Agent also recently announced that it signed a deal with 20th Century Fox to launch the first online store dedicated strictly to officially licensed products from "The Simpsons."
