What do you know of US Media Television (Platinum Television Group)?
 

My office is located in a technical campus - kind of like an industrial park for hi-tech companies. Recently the manager told me the place was going to be featured on "Inside Business" with Fred Thompson. However, the campus had to pay $19,700 for production fees and such. He explained that they didn't have the option of hiring me to produce the video, since "Inside Business" required the production to be handled by one specific vendor.

Well, a few days ago, they found out the "crew" was one lone guy. Today he showed up. Just an average looking videographer with a Canon XL-H1. Being the curious type I am, I googled to see if I could find samples of his work. Well in the process of googling, I found lots of info that this is possibly a scam.

Obviously, they're not a total scam, since they paid to have a hired gun come and shoot here, but they've got lots of bad reports.

Anyone have any dealings with this outfit?

One should not pay to be in a program.

One might pay to have a VNR (Video News Release) done and PR firm can TRY to get that placed.

A worthless website with 4 clips and no explanation of what they do.
Welcome to usmediatelevision.com
No list of key personnel, company history, approach to marketing, explanation of connection to the clips they're showing.

Tell me what you see on their web page
Platinum

Try This
New Line Media TV FRAUDSTERS - BEWARE Platinum Television Group on Yahoo! Video

Bogus YouTube Videos
YouTube - Platinum Television Group Presents Barnard College
a total of two videos posted two years ago. Not the misspelling of the name.
YouTube - PlatinunTelevision's Channel
note on the left in the description it links to the above website.

Then there's this website
PTG Studios | Platinum Television Group| TV Production Forums
Does this look like the site of a professional media company?
and the "learn more" points to is this
http://www.platinumtelevisiongroup.com/profile.html
and that points to this more developed YouTube page
YouTube - ptgtv's Channel
With no video newer than a year old.

There's this site too.
Platinum
Tell me what you see.

Try this one and test the links on the site as well
Platinum Television Group

and a mysterious employee
Platinum Television Group Jobs, People, Culture, and Opportunities | Jobster

And
Platinum Television Group - Web Hosting Forum - Web hosting discussion at SiteGround.com

Platinum Television Group - Ad Space for Sale

Platinum Television Group

Platinum Television Group

Platinum Television Group - Deluxe Martial Arts Forums

and many more like the above.

Have fun playing that ancient marketing video on the left and note the many missing ones.
Platinum Television Group

A press release. Note the link at the bottom.
Platinum Television Group Announces Plans for New State-of-the-Art Studio in the Middle East | Market Wire | Find Articles at BNET

It's all a bogus scam to build up site links to rank high in search engines. A bogus employee using such page to describe the bogus company so it appears to have history and size not listed on any site. Videos which might not have been done by such a company or using a previous company with a similar name. It seems they higher a videographer (note the site with social networking stuff) and abscond with the money.

____

Unfortunately, your guys threw away a lot of money. There are several "production companies" out there that charge companies like yours $20K-50K to do a feature piece about them and receive little or nothing in return. They do produce a piece but it's hardly worth what they charge. A great many of us full time freelancers hang up when they and companies like them call because they also rarely pay us for our work too.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/searchre...submit2=Search!

And,
http://www.miraviroc.com/

What really chafes me is that we had been talking with the manager about producing a promotional video. Then these clowns came along with grand promises and took the gig.

I did find the shooter they hired on the internet and he does have a pretty impressive list of credentials. I sure hope he gets paid.

Dr
 

It looks like Direct Response ads that are formatted to look similar to news programs. Interesting they mainly bought Time Warner Cable markets only, and a few local morning buys. Also, being DR the spots don't air in prime (7p-12m).

National Airdates


Honestly, you should get in touch with your campus' landlord & tell them they got hosed, but I understand if you can't/won't.

Oh, I told them. But they said so far the company has done what they've said they would so they've got nothing to complain about yet. They will keep a very sharp eye on the process from now on.

...and Inside Business should deinterlace before posting on the web!

Understandable, with 'yet' being the operative word. In dropping $20G's I imagine they expect a return on investment in way of leads to new tennants. (Assuming that is what they are advertising for). When they get zero inquiries as a response, I think they won't re-up on the contract.

Commercial real estate is struggling big-time nowadays, and I dont see advertising on CNBC as a solution to gaining tennants. Who knows though?! Anyway I'm guessing $5K went into production, $10k into media buying, and $5k was kept as a profit. Myb not a scam per se, but I doubt your campus is truely getting their moneys worth, it seems like a group of sheisters.

The problem is whether they "promised" the program placement in the contract.
NEVER accept a "promise" unless it's contractual.

The cost is not out of line for some Video News Releases but those who do them don't "promise" placement. They will try and they include that in the contract and may range from file or tape delivery and follow up pitching and sigma encoding to track and verify effectiveness.

Certainly the video can be repurposed too such as web or DVD to perspective customers.

The scam is the "promised" placement as if it were a guarantee and my bet is that's not included in the contract.

I don't think they expect to get any tennants who saw the video on CNBC, but instead expect to have a video they can show and say "as seen on CNBC..." So even if the segment ends up getting aired during a purchased time block at 2:30 AM, they'll still get what they want.

Update: Beware! Multimedia Prod., US Media Television, Platinum Television Group
 

As an update to this thread. Just received this email from a video crewing service that used to service this company;

This is just a word of caution to all crew members out there:

BEWARE of working for Multi Media Productions of Boca Raton, FL.

We have just been forced to accept a settlement of 60% of monies due to
us.

They will no doubt be trying to find crews to replace us in NY, PA, MD,
DC, VA, NC, SC, TX, FL and elsewhere that we have already shot stories
for 21st Century Business News.

Just wanted to update - the segment in question aired today on CNN. No doubt it was a paid spot, but the company delivered what they promised.

Video News Release. It's very common but a company that does them should be upfront and call it that. Modern news is filled with them. One should never "promise" air time. There are always things out of the control of the company producing them no matter how high the interest may be from a broadcaster/cablecaster.

There are not VNR's. VNR's have no specific air date. VNR's are a package of material to be re-edited by the stations as they see fit. I don't think the piece at hand was re-edited by CNN. It was a paid advertisement made to look like a news clip.

Paid advertisement is another story. At $19,700 that sounds like it doesn't include the airtime though.

Not all VNRs are re-edited and that can get some stations in trouble if they get caught.
VNRs are not necessarily for a specific time. They can be "Evergreen."

I spent 5 years editing VNRs for some major national and multinational corporations so my experience of the process is first hand.

Video news release
 

I'd just like some help with a definition here.

A good few years ago I worked on a project (nothing to do with video) where I was expected to give a couple of news releases to the local paper. They re-edited and screwed them up so the items didn't make sense. I was later told that a news release should be published as it is - or the paper sends someone round to interview you for their own piece.

From the previous discussion, I'm totally confused as to what constitutes a video news release. Especially the "a package of material to be re-edited as the station sees fit" comment. What does that package comprise? And if someone can re-edit it, how can you be sure the news release says what you want it to?

Yes, the $19k included airtime.

Annie

A VNR is usually, but not always, a selection of sound bites and supporting B-roll. It's usually uploaded to satellite for download to any station that wants it. They can repackage the material to look as if they produced it. Even a finished piece could be hacked up if the station really wanted to.

These days VNRs can be delivered by FTP.
Pathfire, used by nearly all and cable stations in the USA, sends an MPEG-1 screener link to the stations, If they view and like they can download a broadcast quality MPEG-2 Program Stream.

Usually VNRs include a completely edited story, often with additional B-roll and bites.
They can also be just B-roll of footage and bites.
They can also be "evergreen" not tied to a specific airdate or timely event.
Often one sigma encodes the VNR which allows one to track actual use/success (since airtime is NOT guaranteed).

If the VNR includes a pre cut story the audio is often "split track" so the station can retrack with local voice over and/or sometimes cutting in their own on camera. Of course they may completely re-edit at will but the idea is to avoid them spinning the story another way by giving them little room to do that.

If one is paying for air time that's really a long form commercial (sometimes :120 but it depends on how the time is sold). That's not a news story AT ALL. That's advertising. Any station accepting money and guaranteeing airtime and not making it clear it's an advertisement is likely breaking FCC regulations in the USA. You can not BUY/Guarantee Airtime for a "news" story unless there's some "wink wink, nudge nudge" going on.

I've done this for a living so the above is not recitation of book learned knowledge but first hand experience.

Thanks for the explanations.

Ha, you're not "supposed" to be able to buy news time. I spent 10+ years producing tv news (most of that time at 2 O&Os) and I saw a lot of things happen that were not supposed to.

The Financial Times ran a story a few weeks back that made my head swim. Basically that media buyers say TV stations/networks are calling them, offering to match RADIO rates. Are you kidding? What does THAT say about the state our economy?

But those of you who produce commercials might be salivating at the thought :-)

Wendy, that'a the "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" method I was referring to of course. It's also why I have a deep and inherent mistrust for most news shows. Even the choice of what doesn't get covered is suspect. All news is biased and the biggest factor is usually money in one form or another. Someone watching with eyes wide open (which is unfortunately rare) can spot these incidences though. Fortunately the FCC hasn't totally given up on enforcement. Anybody openly selling placement is a prime target for FCC investigation.