Careful of scams to get media coverage
October 4, 2007 by ShannonCherry
Filed under Business
A client, Ann, emailed me the other day about a very upsetting phone call.
Apparently a TV company thought she would be an ideal guest on a show that is on ABC Family and PAX. But first, they need to make sure she would be a good interview. So for 20 minutes or so, they talked. Ann got more and more excited – especially when this person said she’d be a great guest – so much so that they would dedicate 20 minutes to her.
Then came the scam: although this company would take care of all the production & advertising costs, there was a $19,000 licensing fee in order to get all the legalities out of the way.
$19000! That’s more than my clients pay me for a year’s worth of my services! And I get them in major magazines and TV programs without paying any special fees for the privilege.
Here’s the real deal: if ABC, PAX or any TV station or show wanted to do an interview with you, they would do it for free. That’s how publicity works.
And with a little more research, I found out that that many start up entrepreneurs are also getting the same phone call.
And the name of the company is Platinum Television Group (http://www.platinumtelevision.com).
What’s happening is that these bottom feeders are searching PR WEB and other release posting portals to find people who want publicity. They are so-called ‘creative directors’ who are sales people to convince you that this is the best thing going.
And if you look, you’ll see that they are on some ABC channels, some PAX channels, and some cable access channels. But the time slots are around 4 in the morning! What real person is watching TV at 4 AM that’s going to make a difference to your business?
They, as a company have been dissolved twice and their parent company has also been dissolved a number of times. What this means is that they have declared bankruptcy many times in order to avoid paying people they owe money to.
So if it’s too good to be true…
Shannon that’s shocking and definitely bottom dweller behavior. I think I can understand how someone would believe it’s legitimate if they don’t have any experience with ‘big time media’ but it makes me feel sad to think of those who have spent that money fruitlessly.
I just had a taste of Platinum Television or “Watch Platinum” as they called themselves. They called me regarding a five minute segment on my Event Planning company. They claimed they would bring cameras and a crew to film the entire setup. It would be aired on CNN, Travel Channel, blah, blah, blah. All for just $19,700. (they called a scheduling fee) yeah right! That was a huge red flag! I mean they called me and want me on their show and I have to pay close to $20,000! The Associate Producer, at least today, was Bob Chenoff. Who knows who it will be for the next company. Be Aware!!
first of all you have no idea what you are talking about. There is no such thing as “free Media”. The 1st entry is only upset because you lost $19K. Its ok for you to charge you ‘fee’ correct ,sounds like a double standard. Anybody could write press releases and put them on a wire service. This compnay provides a great service that would companies alot more if they were to do this on thier own. The one osting that they air aat 4am is a lie. Before you post something you should check your facts before you malign an organization. Would you like it done to you? This is a great service for companies that want to get on National Tv and get a network quality segment produced on them, well worth over $19k. You only get upset if you dont have that type of resources. Its not for everyone. It’s like saying ‘why does mercedes charge $100k for a car’ because its worth it. so is this.
I am the President and CEO of Platinum Television Group and want to comment on the article and reader comments. I am APPALLED that a website would allow a writer (Shannon Cherry) write an article and call a company a scam without doing any research at all about us. How can you call us a scam without even calling us. If you would of called us you would of found out that we have aired over 5,000 times over the past 10 years on major cable networks, you would of known that we operate out of a 25,000 square foot studio, we have hundreds of happy refernces. It is VERY dissapointing that a group of you can make negative comments without even working with us or coming to meet with us. VERY dissapointing. You should be very thankful that you don’t have FALSE negative comments about you and your company on the internet. Though I belive your website provides a great service, you are WAY off and WRONG about us. If any of you want to come visit us and truly see what we do we would welcome your visit. The fact of the matter is we provide a very valuable service for compnaies. to get a broadcast quality segment (shot in HD) on their company, have it aired 20 – 30 times throughtout the country in major markets on well known networks and have a celebrity host introduce your company all for under $20,000 is honestly amazing. We are able to do this because of our program revenues and our facilities inhouse. we do not have to sub out the work, thus saving a lot of monies doing it in house and our media buys are done in volume so we get great rates (we spend over $110,000 A MONTH in media)
Again SHAME ON YOU for making false claims about a company you have never worked with.
Doug Scott
Platinum Television Group
Yes, We got the similar Call.
This is June 07 2009. We got an email from Mr. Doug Scott (Doug Scott ) is CEO of Media Television Inc. Why he is also CEO of Platinum Television Group on May 6, 2009??
What sort of company changes name in matter of a month..
Mr. Scott:
The sleaze factor comes in front the start when one gets a phone call from a media scheduler who says she wants to set up an interview. NEVER does she say the phone call is actually a sales call. This is intentional misdirection and misinformation.
I was just called yesterday to setup an conference call with the associate producer about being on the show Going Inside Business with Fred Thompson. I said, WOW! I have finally arrived. The call was this AM and went great, things were happening and they loved what I did and my company. At the end of the conversation he told me about a small, very small participation fee of $20,000.00. I said small? Are you kidding me, for what? I know nothing is for free, but what I don’t understand is that this is their show that they sell advertising time on, why to they need my fee? Is this legitimate or a scam? I would love to talk to someone who had success with this type of press. I was on top of the world, now I do not know where I am.
More and more new scams are popping up everyday. The only way to stop scams is by educating people.
A little due diligence would have shown that US Media Television has gone under multiple name changes, from Platinum Television to Encore Television to US Media Television, and these are just the ones I found through a quick Google search. I can’t say whether this is a scam or not, but I do feel the original poster of this article was correct in saying that any type of fee paid for news coverage is not really news coverage….it is advertising and should be construed as such.
I haven’t completed my due diligence on this company yet, but I must say that there is a bunch of naive whining in this comment stream. Caveat Emptor, people! I have been approached my numerous shows just like this one. Yes, they are offering “sponsored” spots, or glorified infomercials, but grow up! That is how it works. It’s a media buy, like any other, and an inexpensive one at that. In my conversations with them, they never claimed to be other than an independent production company that is an “approved content provider” with those TV outlets, airing 5 minute segments in between regular shows. I’m sorry that you all feel that you should be on the news, but that’s not what this is.
Here’s some perspective for you: before I was approached by USMT, I was researching the costs of producing my own 5 minute segment just like the kind of work they do. It would easily cost me TWICE as much, and that does NOT include ANY airings on TV. I could do it myself, pitch it to TV outlets, or just put in on YouTube, and pay $40,000. So, I’m going to seriously consider going with USMT (after I perform due diligence on them, of course) and what I give up in control of the project I’ll gain in savings and free TV air time.
Think about it. TNSTAAFL.
Personally, I find it much more troubling that their President has so many spelling errors in his post. I do not find it troubling they they are offering a service that costs money.
before you post a lie you should do your homework!!
this company does great work!! It does not air at the hour you mentioned they air at times like 4:25 p.m., 7:30 am.. and given us a great return for our company..
again dont believe it just because something is posted on a site. This company does high quality productions and helped countless companies get there message out there that has brought back GREAT returns..these organizations could not have gotten this amount exposure on there own..
so again stop posting lies!! You are defaming a company you have NEVER worked with and that is WRONG!! and you are defaming the character of a company and that is liable in a court of law..watch before you post LIES!!
I was contacted today by this company, and have spent the last several hours reading the internet mumbo jumbo……First let me say that out of precaution alone I will most likely not work with them, but I probably wouldn’t have anyway because we are a small company with a small marketing budget. I must say though, I feel sorry for these guys. There is not one piece of evidence leading to trickery or scamming on their part. The only company I could find that has actually had a reak true life experience with them was from the year 2000……Now, I may not be a math major, but I do know that if a company was scamming people some of the people that were really scammed would have popped up for comment in the last nine years. You people are a bunch of winers…..or you can’t afford it, or you are tryint to deliberately put these people out of business. I watched several segments that I found online and they were better than the corporate video that I paid $12000 for a couple of years ago, and that didn’t have the a celebrity host. Wow…..I feel sorry for you guys…..nothing better to do with your time. As for the production company……I will call you when I am ready to do another video just to shut these babies up.
I denied the words which are above posted by some persons, i don’t know they are in consciousness mind or not. Without knowing any truth there is no right to blame any company, i know about the company how they service to the people by spreading the information through his new channel. As you know about any standard company they have some prudential and worthy for the brand name. So they are charging the amount for the campaign from the people, it’s not a sin they have the brand name and its necessary to charge the amount, how can they give the huge salaries to the employee’s. It’s not good thing that blaming of brand and media company because they are the preamble in giving news and awareness in the people by showing their capture video’s.
I just got the initial phone call from Andrea Miller an hour ago. Bob Chenoff was the person I will talk to next Monday. The company name was given as US Media Television.com.
Thank you for posting your experience. I filed a report with the Missouri State Attorney General.
In my opinion this is a SCAM. Legit media never charge fees to guests, in fact national shows normally guest travel & hotels. If a mdeia outlet wants you to pay for appearing it is a COMMERCIAL. Calling it something else is dishonest in my view.
Well i dont think this is a scam if there telling u that there is a fee… we live in an opportunist world where people need to make money. Television is not free so of course there must be some cost associated some how… People we cant be that ignorant to the fact that thats how some orginizations do business.
Well said John Canton- well said. No free lunches. To have a national televised segment with a celebrity host and the ability to reutilze the segment.
Ritchie,
We signed up with them for some shows and this is the first time I have seen this. We did a lot of verifying beforehand. What have you heard about Inside Business and US Media Television?
This may appear to be a tough one. When doing research on US Media they have a lot of companies; big, small, and cities that are doing the show and have paid like 20K. There is no word of stealing or scam. One of featured the company’s is a city where the actual contract is online and it states the fee required. So how could a city government who would be using taxpayers for the scheduling fee go willy nilly into a scam. Something to think about. I am sure they have access to all types of safeguards and checks/balances when doing business with people. I have heard of perfectly legitimate shows charging. Sometimes 40K-50K
My company was contacted to appear on the Inside Business with Fred Thompson show. My CEO had an interview with an “Associate Producer” just like you. Before we went any further, we called the media outlets these bozos claim air their programs. With some diligence we were able to reach the Global Vice President of Public Relations at one of the major cable news networks that US Media alleges airs their program. The VP said they had no such program on their network, even though the US Media website listed an airing schedule for the program. The VP cautiously warned us that this was not the first time she had heard of this group/SCAM and assured us that what US Media was selling was not anywhere on their network’s program schedule. Again, US Media plastered this network’s logo and name all over their website and marketing materials. We provided the cable network with all of the US Media’s marketing materials we received. The VP told us they were filing a complaint with the NY State Attorney General. Looking at US Media’s website today, I see that most of it is offline. Only the homepage and one or two other pages are active. Not a good sign. Do your research!!!