eBay to entertain on TV

Online auction pioneer eBay has teamed up with Sony Entertainment to start a syndicated daily television series about the world of collecting.

The new half hour show, expected to go on air at the beginning of Autumn 2002, will include personal experiences of eBay and other venues, as well as highlighting items traded through the site.

It is planned to be different from the BBC's Antiques Roadshow, which is also popular in the US.

Russ Krasnoff, president, programming and production, at Columbia TriStar, said: "In our conversations with them, television stations around the country are consistent in their desire for programming projects that will have the versatility and quality to become long-term franchises and also offer promotional opportunities that venture outside the box."

He said this effort has the potential to achieve both goals in a creative, entertaining way.

The series, designed for afternoon viewing, will offer local stations a value-added variety of cross-promotions that include online links between stations' websites, and the activities of eBay and its more than 34 million registered users.

The show will initially be distributed in the US and plans to reach global audiences are being discussed, according to eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove.

Although the show's content and format have yet to be completed, eBay said the show's title would have some sort of identification with eBay.

Pursglove said the show would combine chat and on-site reporting. "It will be looking at how collecting has taken off in the last several years and how eBay played a role in that boom."

The auction site has been increasing its marketing on television and recently became a national underwriter of the Antiques Roadshow, a Public Broadcasting Series show in the US.

eBay and Los Angeles-based LMNO Productions plan to co-produce the series, with syndication by Columbia TriStar Television Distribution, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment.