Devine Entertainment Corporation (OTCBB:DVNNF), seeking to capitalize on the burgeoning global demand for high quality film and television content, has announced expansion of its educational marketing initiatives following the continued success in the distribution of proprietary film series to school and institutional buyers.
Devine recently sent representatives to the National Middle School Association annual conference in Houston, TX, to meet with volume buyers and curriculum-setters in the middle school market. In the best response in the Company's history of attending school conferences, several hundred educators registered as part of Devine's initiatives to sell a number of its most successful titles aimed at young adults.
"Although we have met with steady success in this market, we believe there is great untapped potential for additional sales," said David Devine, President and Chief Executive Officer of Devine Entertainment. "We estimate that we have penetrated only 15-20 percent of the U.S. educational market to date with our successful franchise titles, yet these evergreen titles continue to sell strongly year after year. Meanwhile, the anticipated production of new titles will increase the value of our entire library."
Devine's education strategy in the U.S. currently focuses on the pre-K through 8th grade levels, comprising approximately 55 million students in 68,000 elementary and middle schools. It also targets more than 110,000 U.S. libraries, including public, private and school libraries.
Devine's strong, established educational and institutional market distribution channel provides sales advantages distinct to the company. Devine does not need to arrange new distribution for newly produced or licensed properties. Making such arrangements is a time-consuming, expensive, hit-and-miss proposition for other participants in Devine's marketplace. Devine's educational and institutional distribution channel is solid and ongoing with real customers and revenue. Thus, Devine can also readily capitalize on any new products. Newly produced or acquired titles can be simply sold and distributed alongside existing products, giving new titles predictable revenue and sales value for Devine.
The increasingly strong Devine distribution channel also attracts high-quality titles produced by third parties, such as Shakespeare 4 Kids or Marsalis on Music, providing yet another powerful driver for Devine to grow its distribution pipeline and business.
Devine's educational sales representatives will next attend the upcoming American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in January, in Philadelphia, PA, to develop further sales opportunities among volume buyers at libraries nationwide.
Among the Devine titles that have generated the highest sales and interest throughout the educational market segment are: The Inventors' Specials, The Composers' Specials, The Artists' Specials, Marsalis on Music and Beethoven Lives Upstairs. The films are designed to address the young adult audience with high-quality script and production values that enable them to entertain students while they augment teacher instruction.
With many schools and municipalities increasingly forced to cut budgets for art and music education, Devine has seen greater demand than ever for its films to step into that gap. "Educators have found that our music and arts-oriented titles can provide students valuable exposure to these important aspects of culture that students might not otherwise receive," said Glenn Sernyk, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Devine Entertainment, who spearheads the Company's children's and educational sales programs. "In addition, films such as our Inventors' Specials are often used by teachers to help make math and science more accessible to their students."
Devine enjoys a near-zero returned or unsold inventory rate on its educational titles, enabling the Company to maintain steady revenue projections in this portion of its operations. "Education provides a strong foundation for our business and helps us to avoid the cash flow uncertainty that plagues many film and television production companies," said Mr. Devine. "This enables us to capitalize the company much more effectively to maintain our production pipeline and continue to build our library of titles."
About Devine Entertainment
Devine Entertainment Corporation develops, creates, and produces award-winning television programming and feature films for worldwide distribution across multiple TV broadcast networks, cable and satellite networks, DVD and Internet markets. Specializing in cultural and educational programming as well as prime-time drama and comedy entertainment programming, the Company's titles have garnered more than 120 international film and television industry awards, including five Emmy and five Gemini Awards. The Company partners with leading international distributors, broadcasters and co-producers, such as Sony BMG, Rogers Media and The Carrere Group of France, to produce and distribute its award-winning film and television titles.
Among Devine's critically acclaimed productions are its cultural and educational film series on history's landmark Composers, Inventors and Artists, which have been broadcast in more than 50 countries. The Company continues to expand its proprietary library of high-quality film and television content. Among its general-audience primetime programming is the acclaimed one-hour mystery series, "Across the River to Motor City," delivered to broadcasters worldwide in 2007. Headquartered in Toronto, the Company's common shares trade on the NASD OTCBB market in the U.S. under the symbol DVNNF, and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the ticker 3TD. The Company's corporate website is www.devine-ent.com.
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Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements relating to the future performance of Devine Entertainment Corporation. Forward-looking statements, specifically those concerning future performance and the achievement of operating profitability are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include the market acceptance of the Company's products and services; competition within the film and entertainment industry and the introduction of new entrants and/or products in the Company's markets; adverse changes in governmental regulations and policies affecting the film and entertainment industry; product development risks and risks of technological change; the risk of unanticipated expenses; and other risks and uncertainties all as described in the disclosure documents filed with securities regulatory authorities in accordance with applicable securities laws. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Although the Company believes that the expectations conveyed by the forward-looking statements are reasonable based on information available to it on the date such forward-looking statements are made, no assurances can be given as to future results, levels of activity and achievements. All subsequent forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances or management's estimates or opinions change.
