Careful of scams to get media coverage
October 4, 2007 by ShannonCherry
Filed under Entrepreneurship
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.
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.
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!!
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.
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
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.
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.