Penske's PMC, ION to put H'wd news in taxis, elevators, on TV (WSJ)

By Nancy Tartaglione

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Care to share a ride with Nikki Finke? As part of a new deal between Jay Penske's PMC and ION Television, her voice may soon be heard in taxicabs and elevators from Black Rock to Burbank.

The Wall Street Journal reports that PMC has teamed with ION to produce short news segments about Hollywood which will run on several platforms including Penske's digital properties and ION TV, along with screens inside elevators and taxicabs nationwide.

According to the newspaper, the new service, "ENTV" (Entertainment News Television), will run in one-to-two minute segments with breaking news throughout the day and feature editors and journalists from Penske's digital outlets including Bonnie Fuller of Hollywoodlife.com and Michael Ausiello of TVLine.com. Deadline.com founder and editor-in-chief Finke is to make voiceover contributions, The Journal said.

PMC recently syndicated its content on more than 10,000 elevator screens across LA, New York, Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco. ION Television is the flagship channel of ION Media Networks and reaches 99 million households across America.

"It's about taking breaking news stories and distributing them continually across as many platforms as possible, whether it's on the Web, on television, or in elevators and taxi cabs," Penske told the newspaper.

Aiming for a wider section of the pyramid, segments will appeal to a broad consumer base, not the niche Hollywood community, ION CEO Brandon Burgess told The Journal. "The key to success with this deal will be picking stories that appeal to that broader audience, not just inside Hollywood - like what Charlie Sheen is up to, or who is being cast in the next 'Spiderman' movie."

Segments will begin being slotted in as early as this week. Penske added that if there were an important breaking news item, regularly programmed shows on ION could also be interrupted.