FYI to all Forum members and visitors...there was a press conference last Thursday at the Miami Boat Show http://www.iboats.com/press-releases/021606.html where iboats.com and The Water Channel announced an exciting partnership together.<br /><br />The Water Channel is a new TV channel on satellite TV...channel 216...that will be airing as of March 6, 2006, 12 hours a day of programming that will include; fishing of all kinds, boating of all kinds, diving, sailing, yachting, surfing, skiing, wind surfing, kayaking, rafting, wake boarding, and water-destinations. By this summer it will expand into 35 million homes and by next year it is planned to be in 88 million homes.<br /><br />The partnership will combine the strengths of the Internet and what iboats.com has to offer online with the excitement, power and added viewers that the TV brings. iboats.com remains a privately owned, separate company from the Water Channel. <br /><br />iboats.com is providing the Water Channel with a mirror image of our online store (our Marine MegaMall) that currently has about 411,000 product SKUs in it. We will continue to add new products into our MegaMall. There will be TV commercials directing viewers to www.WaterChannel.com to shop or to call a toll free 800 number to shop. iboats.com will take all those phone call orders and the online orders from the Water Channel. Additionally, The Water Channel will brand our company by advertising www.iboats.com several times every hour on TV in various commercials, for viewers to call us toll-free or come to our iboats.com site to make purchases of products they see on the TV.<br /><br />iboats.com will also provide the Water Channel with our new and used-boat Classifieds listings; about 30,000 boats are currently found on iboats.com. Going forward with this new relationship, both boat dealers and individual boaters can list their boats for sale and view boats for sale
not just on the Internet at iboats.com but their boats will then also be promoted in the TV Classifieds
reaching millions of additional potential buyers.<br /><br />What this means for Forum members, and all who shop or visit on iboats.com will be even greater selection of products and services over time, and continued excellent pricing due to further increasing sales volumes. It may also mean a significant increase in the number of Forum visitors over time, so we continue to strengthen the Forums back-end equipment.<br /><br />There was a noticeable BUZZ throughout the Miami Boat Show about this partnership and what it could mean to strengthen the boating and water-related industry. As one manufacturer told us, There hasnt been something this exciting hit the industry in a long, long time. This is what we need to really grow boating! We sure hope so!<br /><br />BV
