Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions)
Your first question comes from the line of Mark Argento with Craig-Hallum. Please proceed.
Mark Argento - Craig-Hallum
Thank you. The first question on the branding campaign, could you speak a little bit more specifically about how you are going to go about it, what your ultimate goal is, how you are going to measure the return you get, and then also could you just clarify a little bit, did you say $15 million to $20 million in incremental spend for that branding campaign? I just wanted to get a little bit more color there. Thanks.
Richard Battista
The $15 million to $20 million is a total amount for corporate marketing. Inside of that is the marketing campaign. A little more color on that, for us as I said in my comments, we certainly believe it is the appropriate time to unveil such a campaign. I would say it is really two-fold; one it is clearly to drive more usage of our product, so there is an obvious ROI return to that, and the goal is to get more consumption of our products across all of our TV Guide branded platforms.
I do believe, as I said in my comments, there is a bit of an intangible benefit and value to this as well. This is a company that historically has not spent a lot of money to improve the brand and make it more relevant and I believe this is an important step for us to make as we traverse into the digital world and to raise the visibility of our brand and the perception of our brand in today’s media landscape.
Those are really the two pieces of it.
Mark Argento - Craig-Hallum
Just refresh my memory in terms of the general marketing budget. I am just trying to figure out your incremental spend you guys anticipate as I am putting together the model here. I just wanted to make sure I have that factored in correctly.
Bedi A. Singh
$15 million to $20 million, as Rich said, is the total marketing budget of the company. We did not have a significant marketing expense in 2006. It is difficult to say exactly what the incremental would be, but --
Mark Argento - Craig-Hallum
But it is the lion’s share of that?
Bedi A. Singh
I would say that, yes.
Mark Argento - Craig-Hallum
Lastly, when it comes to the TVG Network business, I know you guys have been working with Churchill Downs and you guys walked away from that relationship, or trying to renegotiate that deal. Do you anticipate that is going to have a material impact to your business? How should we think of that line item for 2007?
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