Field Reports
QABy Thomas Haire ( thaire@questex.com)
Harrington Brothers Refocus on OmniReliant
Business
Amicable split from Responze TV deal is reached, allowing the long-time DRTV players to turn attention to OmniReliant, OmniResponse
and TVGoods.com.
Recent rumblings out of St. Petersburg, Fla., and the United Kingdom
regarding Responze TV PLC and its American arm, run by long-time DRTV
industry leaders Tim and Kevin Harrington, were muted on August 5, when the
Harringtons announced their resignations from Responze TV. In the same release,
the Harringtons announced the formation of
TVGoods.com, a new company, and
its entry into a consultant agreement with OmniResponse Inc., a wholly owned
subsidiary of OmniReliant Holdings Inc., which they’d founded in late 2006. The
companies also announced the acquisition of the former Keyframe Studio facilities
( 33,000-square-feet of production space on a 5.5-acre lot in Clearwater, Fla.),
renaming it OmniComm Studios. In late August, Response caught up with the
Harringtons, as well as Grahame Farquar, Responze TV’s chief financial officer.
the process along earlier. When Nigel
left, he was replaced by the original
CFO when we came aboard, Grahame
Farquar. The split happened amicably.
GRAHAME FARQUAR: The solution was
amicable. When I returned, working
with Kevin and Tim, it was clear that
they’ve had their own company and style
for years. It’s a very entrepreneurial
business, and sometimes that doesn’t
fit well with the rigors of an overseas
public company.
RESPONSE: Kevin, what hap-
pened between between the
Harringtons and Responze TV?
KEVIN HARRINGTON: We’ve spent 25
years in this business, and one thing
you learn is that you never know what’s
going to happen! What this boils down
to is a clash between entrepreneurs —
Tim and me — and our style of busi-
ness and the London stock exchange,
where Responze TV is listed. It’s difficult
to run an entrepreneurial business when
that business is also publicly traded.
Responze TV had $2 million in sales
in 2006. After we took over in January
2007, the company had a string of suc-
cesses — Magic Jack, Franklin Mint,
Tony Little, all in 14 months — and
sales reached $23 million in 2007. The
company was a little stunned with the
success. They brought in a new CFO on
May 1, Nigel Harris, who took a look at
our books.
TIM HARRINGTON: He saw the agree-
ments included different points and
residuals with different people — pro-
ducers, product finders, talent, etc. He
was not used to this type of business,
especially with a publicly traded com-
pany. He couldn’t quite get his arms
around it, so he ordered an internal
audit
KEVIN HARRINGTON: There was a board
meeting and things got a bit abrasive.
We didn’t see eye to eye with Nigel, nor
he with us. He left the company just 20
days after he started. But, in that short
time, he turned the company upside
down. The stock was pulled from the
market due to his internal audit — that
was the worst part of what happened to
the business.
TIM HARRINGTON: To be clear, there
were no outside government or stock
exchange inquiries. It was an internal
audit — a private matter in a public
company.
What steps did you take to
end the relationship with
ResponzeTV?
KEVIN HARRINGTON: Our agreements
were initially up at the end of 2008, but
we decided it would be best to move
What is the relationship between
OmniResponse, OmniReliant,
TVGoods.com and OmniComm
Studios?
KEVIN HARRINGTON: We’ve refocused
our efforts to the Omni brand, which
we founded before merging with
Responze TV. OmniReliant has raised
$17 million — the company was built
originally around the Kathy Hilton prod-
uct brand. With some of that money,
we bought the new OmniComm Studios
building in Clearwater. We’ve already
had a couple of major DRTV players
shoot shows there. We’ve shot there our-
selves for 14 years. So it made perfect
sense to buy the studio when it became
available.
Who is staffing the new business?
TIM HARRINGTON: As part of our deal
with Responze TV, with Grahame’s
approval, we were able to take some key
players of our staff with us to the new
business. We have a full staff as part of
the OmniReliant re-launch.
