DVD is the star of late-night TV show: DVDWeekend steers viewers to Wal-Mart.(Promotion)

Video Business, January, 2004 by Frankel, Daniel

Eager to cash on a growing pot of TV advertising for DVD that hit an estimated $1 billion in 2003, a veteran TV syndication executive and his news-anchor wife have launched a half-hour show dedicated to the disc. Airing twice each weekend in the wee hours on WB network affiliate KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, DVDWeekend features perky hosts Renee Sams and Mindy Burbano-Stearns, both on-air talent on the station's local newscast, offering info on new release and catalog DVD titles.

The creators are independently producing DVDWeekend for KTLA with the hope that Tribune Entertainment--the syndication arm of Tribune Broadcasting, which owns the station--another syndicator will take the program national. The shows are built around themes. The recent "Comic...