Sea Movies counts some of the biggest cruise lines, distributors (AETN International being one of them), and Fox among its clients and works with airline agents Entertainment in Motion and Jaguar Distribution, as well. Pilot Productions, a London-based producer and distributor of adventure travel guides like Globe Trekkers and Planet Food, is an obvious fit for closed circuit businesses like cruise line entertainment. “This is new for us,” said Maria Ishak, Sales and Marketing coordinator at Pilot. “We’re working closely to sell our series to the cruise lines. Our programs are an easy fit because the cruise lines can use them to promote their destinations.” Ishak added that the show’s impressive scenery means they can be used in a non-audio way, as background when guests get ready in their rooms. “Cruise lines see a value in choosing the most appropriate series for each individual ship,” said AETN’s Trimmer. “They tend to choose lifestyle programming or programming that directly correlates with the passengers’ activities or the ships’ destinations.” AETN series that have been particularly popular with the cruse lines are Ocean Liners, an episode from The History Channel’s Modern Marvels series, and Golf Links in Time. Crystal Cruises’ Weisband said her company’s program specials often feature in-depth explorations of cruise destinations; and around Christmas-time, holiday programming and movies are shown more frequently. As for the future of airline entertainment, Sea Movies’ Baren said that, not unlike every other aspect of the business, it’s all about digitalization. “The ships have limitless storage space, which is much better for the industry,” he said. “It means there’s definitely a higher demand.” This, from a content provider’s standpoint, is good news. “Along with airline program sales, it’s a business that’s been growing in the last few years. Cruise line sales can provide additional revenue out of programs already in our catalogue,” said Trimmer. LCB OC T O B E R 2 0 0 7 (Continued from Page 36) Cruise Line Entertainment (Continued from Page 22) Private Equity by James Packer following the death of his father Kerry. Last October, James sold half of the company’s assets (which included Nine Network) to CVC Asia Pacific forming PBL Media in a deal worth A$4.54 billion (U.S.$ 3.95 billion). Back in the States, many of the Hollywood majors have been using private equity funds to hedge the risk involved in some of their most expensive movies, and — as was the case with MGM — buying studios outright. But there are signs that access to such funds is becoming both more difficult and more expensive. Regardless of that, and the turmoil caused by the crisis in the U.S. mortgage market, the enthusiasm of private equity groups to borrow to acquire seems undimmed. In August, Blackstone closed the world’s largestever private equity fund at an eyewatering $22.7 billion. While it is true that the majority of these funds were raised before the current problems emerged, nothing that has happened recently has stopped KKR, PAI Partners and Carlyle Group from going to the markets for a reported $52 billion between them to fund leveraged buyouts. The belief is that the current financial instability is good news for these companies, as it will tend to drive down the stock prices of the companies on their wish lists. These sums are so large, and the companies being bought by the money private equity raises are so blue chip that it is difficult to speculate precisely what will happen if rates go up significantly, and the money underpinning them goes significantly AWOL (absent without leave). Right now one could only speculate that investors pour money into private equity funds because the stock market, with its poor growth and dread of dividends, does not offer a viable return. And since these funds don’t find good returns in the stock exchanges (in the past, some funds had to return money to investors for lack of investment opportunities), they are turning their attention to media companies with the clear intent of making a killing on the stock market (a.k.a. taking the companies public, once again) just as soon as the environment is nice and ready.
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