Team Strikes Pair Of Distribution Deals

TEAM Communications Group said it has inked exclusive distribution deals with October Moon Television and U.K.-based Indigo Film and Television for rights to TEAM's library of television programming.

The two deals will encompass all TEAM programming produced before April 19.

Titles in the Indigo package include the ABC telefilm "Final Jeopardy," MTV telefilm "Anatomy of a Hate Crime" and "Live Through This," MTV's debut drama series. Domestically, such series as the Travel Channel's "destination:style" and "World's Mysterious Places" will be available.

TEAM said the value of its library, according to an independent assessment, is $24 million-$25 million.

The Indigo deal will give the London firm worldwide rights, outside of North America and South America, to 2,000 hours of programming from TEAM's television catalog throughout an 18-month window.

October Moon will represent TEAM's library domestically to broadcasters and video and ancillary outlets, TEAM said.

Chuck Larsen, president of October Moon, will work with TEAM Entertainment president James Waldron in positioning TEAM product in North America. In South America, TEAM will represent itself.

The company will also directly license all programming produced after April 19. But Indigo will have first right of refusal for the worldwide distribution of future TEAM product outside of North America and South America.

Both agreements are an attempt to cut costs and restore profitability to TEAM, which had net losses of $42.7 million last year, a tenfold jump from 1999 figures (HR 4/24). TEAM's cost-cutting efforts have already seen it shut down its offices in Germany and the United Kingdom.

"This is a strategic move that should lay a cornerstone for TEAM's future profitability," TEAM CEO Michael Jay Solomon said in TEAM's statement to the German market. "(The deals) will reduce our operating overheads by 50%," Solomon said.

Solomon said last week that thanks to the cost-cutting and the two distribution deals, "we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Cash flow is definitely improving, and the next 60 days will see a lot of money coming into the company in the form of outside investment and joint ventures."

Solomon said TEAM expects to break even by the second quarter and turn a profit by the end of the third quarter. "This is a brand-new company," he said. "In the past, TEAM's assets haven't been properly exploited. I think that will now change."