FUJIAN, China--(BUSINESS WIRE)--China MediaExpress Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ GS: CCME) (“CME” or “Company”), China’s largest television advertising operator on inter-city and airport express buses, today announced that it has signed three new long-term agreements, adding a total of 774 express buses to its network. Specifically, CME signed the following contracts:
- A long-term framework agreement with a media company to purchase exclusive rights to supply entertainment programming along with paid advertising on 623 inter-city express buses originating from the Henan province, for a period of five years and commenced on January 1, 2011. As per the framework agreement, CME will pay the media company a one-time fee for the acquisition of the operating rights in addition to a fixed monthly concession fee to the bus operator over the term of the contract with an annual increment of 15%.
- A framework agreement with a media company to purchase exclusive rights to supply entertainment programming along with paid advertising on 101 airport express buses originating from the Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in the Sichuan Province. CME’s contract is for a period of four years and commenced January 1, 2011. According to the framework agreement, CME will pay the media company a one-time fee for the acquisition of the operating rights in addition to a fixed monthly concession fee over the term of the contract with an annual increment of 10%-30%.
- The third agreement was with another media company to purchase exclusive rights to supply entertainment programming along with paid advertising on 50 airport express buses originating from the Shijiazhuang Zhengding International Airport in the Hebei province. CME’s contract is for a period of three years and commenced January 1, 2011. According to the framework agreement, CME will pay the media company a one-time fee for the acquisition of the operating rights in addition to a fixed monthly concession fee over the term of the contract with an annual increment of 15%.
CME’s founder & CEO, Zheng Cheng added, “These new contracts have further expanded our airport express bus network which now includes eight of China’s largest airports in terms of passengers. In 2009, Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport was the busiest airport in Western China and the 6th busiest airport nationwide in terms of passenger traffic. The Shijiazhuang Zhengding International Airport is Hebei’s largest airport servicing 2.6 million passengers in 2010. Because of its proximity to Beijing, the airport was expanded before the 2008 Olympic Games and now serves as an alternate airport to the Beijing Capital International Airport. In addition, for the inter-city bus market, we have increased our presence in the province of Henan. We entered the province in September 2010 with an agreement for 986 inter-city buses. With this agreement and one in November for 635 inter-city buses, our network in Henan province encompasses more than 2,200 inter-city buses.”
About CME
CME, through contractual arrangements with Fujian Fenzhong, an entity majority owned by CME’s former majority shareholder, operates the largest television advertising network on inter-city and airport express buses in China. While CME has no direct equity ownership in Fujian Fenzhong, through the contractual agreements CME receives the economic benefits of Fujian Fenzhong’s operations. Fujian Fenzhong generates revenue by selling advertisements on its network of television displays installed on over 27,200 express buses originating in eighteen of China’s most prosperous regions, including the four municipalities of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing and fourteen economically prosperous regions, namely Guangdong, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Fujian, Sichuan, Hebei, Anhui, Hubei, Shandong, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Zhejiang, Hunan and Henan.
CME is included in the Russell Global Index. For more information visit: www.ccme.tv.