MEMS Adds Ethnic Channels To Portfolio

MEMS, the sales house for multicultural digital television, has announced the addition of four new channels to its portfolio, increasing its line up to total 15 Asian, Afro-Caribbean and Latin American broadcasters in the UK.

The company will now handle national sales for the long-running Asian channel, Zee TV as well as the new ZEE SAW channel, offering English speaking news for Britain’s South Asian community.

Pakistani channel PTV Prime, and Afro Caribbean channel Dove TV also join the MEMS portfolio, along with Passion TV, another new channel, and the first to be aimed at British-born Afro Caribbeans.

MEMS is the fastest-growing and largest ethnic television sales house in the country, with more than two million viewers currently watching its channels. Other channels represented by MEMS are BEN TV, Record TV, OBE TV and the B4U Network.

Commenting on MEMS’ expanding portfolio, Michael Makinde, MD of Passion TV said: “The benefits of joining a strong sales operation are clear: MEMS has a proven track record and has been instrumental in moving the whole ethnic market forward.”

Anthony Greenidge, sales and marketing director of MEMS added: “The consolidation of these new channels with our existing stations expands our offering to advertisers and makes it possible to reach the majority of ethnic TV viewers with just one telephone call.”

All 15 channels in the MEMS portfolio are also involved in The UK Ethnic Survey, one of the largest ever surveys of media consumption by ethnic minorities, recently commissioned by the company.

The survey will provide a detailed snapshot of multi-cultural demographics, including data on income, lifestyle, expenditure, retail and, in particular, media consumption. The new research will, for the first time, provide a thorough insight into the ethnic marketplace as well as bridging the “accountability gap” currently concerning digital advertisers.

First announced in August, the new survey hopes to build a database of information giving a broad knowledge of ethnic media habits, rather than relying on the ad hoc and project focused solutions developed so far (see MEMS To Launch Ethnic Media Consumption Survey).

MEMS: www.memstv.co.uk