Clorox Teams Up with TV Guide

Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. said today it would add credit card company MasterCard International, consumer products company Clorox Co. and Internet job search company HotJobs.com Inc. to its list of advertisers on its interactive program guide.

Sources familiar with deals of this nature say they amount to around $1 million combined for advertising through the end of the year.

“The bottom line is that advertising on the program guide is going to be extremely important,” said CIBC World Markets analyst John Corcoran. “The guide accounts for 65 percent of its valuation. The more they can get non-dot-com companies to advertise, it becomes important to the success of this company.”

In addition to the TV Guide weekly magazine, the company also sells a program guide that allows users to navigate the increased number of channels and programming made possible by digital cable and satellite television.

Along with carriage deals with cable companies, advertising is an important source of revenue for the guide, which reaches 13 million households.

“We’ve stated that the road to success in respect to program guide advertising is to solidify a multitude of deals,” said Jeffrey Mahl, president of Gemstar’s media sales. “With the addition of these three major brands, we’re gaining considerable momentum ad adding the support of some very savvy marketers.”