LAS VEGAS, Jan. 08, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Player’s Network, Inc. (OTCQB:PNTV) (the "Company"), a diversified holding company operating in media and marijuana, today announces a shareholder letter from Chairman Mark Bradley.
CEO Mark Bradley, Director Brett H. Pojunis and CFO Geoffrey Lawrence will be hosting a Facebook Live to discuss this press release and will be available to answer questions from shareholders. The Facebook Live will be broadcasted on www.fb.com/PlayersNetwork and will start at 10:30 AM PST, 1:30 PM EST.
Dear Shareholder,
2017 was a great year for our company! We are so grateful for your remarkable continued support and feedback.
The foundation has been laid for an extraordinary 2018. We are favorably positioned to exceed our 2018 milestones. A follow up announcement with management’s goals and objectives for 2018 will be made promptly.
The global marijuana industry as a whole made tremendous progress and realized historic growth in 2017. PNTV was well positioned and right in the middle of the action. Nevada commenced its recreational Marijuana program July 1st, 2017 and sales have rapidly exceeded the already immense expectations. January 1st, 2018 California opened the largest recreational market in the world. Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maine will be online with their recreational Marijuana programs in the near future. By the end of 2018, we anticipate a minimum of nine states with legal markets for recreational marijuana and 29 states for medical marijuana.
Last week, the industry experienced what we believe will turn out to be only a brief hiccup. Many investors in the marijuana sector panicked and sold their positions after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole Memorandum, an Obama-era enforcement guideline that offered some protections to state-licensed marijuana businesses. We feel it was unfortunate that these investors overestimated the significance of the Cole Memorandum and in our opinion misunderstood Mr. Sessions’ ability to affect state-licensed marijuana businesses and candidly, I felt overreacted. The Attorney General is currently prohibited by law from spending any department resources to prosecute marijuana businesses that are in compliance with their state laws and he cannot do so without an act of Congress, which Congress has been unwilling to grant.
Furthermore, state and local governments are now receiving hundreds of millions of dollars annually from marijuana-related taxes which finance K-12 education and other essential services. There is record-high support for legalizing marijuana in the United States. Nearly two out of three Americans now support legalizing marijuana use (64%). For these reasons, we feel the future of the marijuana industry is now brighter than ever.
We also believe PNTV, through our diversified holdings is well positioned to continue to lead the marijuana industry and effect positive change. Our unique mix of assets include Weed TV, Marijuana Accelerator (MJ Accelerator), and Green Leaf Farms Holdings (Green Leaf). In our opinion, there are no other companies, private or public, possessing the exceptional industry diversification offered up by PNTV.
2017 Highlights
- PNTV expands senior management team
- Launches and grows Marijuana Accelerator
- Green Leaf received 2 medical marijuana licenses in the State of Nevada
- Nevada began recreational marijuana sales
- Green Leaf obtained 2 recreational licenses
- Green Leaf began producing initial line of products; realized first revenues
- Weed TV launches video platform including mobile app
- Weed TV produced Weed House Event and generated over 300 pieces of original content
- Comcast lawsuit settled favourably.
- Green Leaf completed Phase 2 adding 8,000 sq. ft of cultivation
- Company expanded from 5 employees to 24 employees and consultants
- Attracted new investor base, increased number of shareholders over 500%
- Launched comprehensive in-house Shareholder Relations Division
- Secures substantial growth-capital financing
Expanded Management Team
PNTV was excited to build a substantial, seasoned management team. In 2017, we added three key personnel: Geoffrey Lawrence as the Company's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Compliance Officer, Andy Orgel as Network Director for WeedTV; Jason Ching as Director of Operations for our Green Leaf Farms subsidiary; and Jeffrey Robinson to direct Marijuana Accelerator. In addition to its senior management team, the company has expanded to 19 full-time employees and consultants.
Nevada Goes Recreational and Green Leaf Began Generating Revenues
July 1st, 2017, Nevada dispensaries started selling recreational marijuana without the need for a medical card. Green Leaf met the requirements in 2017 to obtain both medical and recreational licenses for the cultivation and production of marijuana and marijuana products. Green Leaf started manufacturing and producing its first product called Rosin. In the 3rd Quarter of 2017, Green Leaf started producing revenues from the sale of Rosin and has continually increased the number of dispensaries carrying Green Leaf products. Las Vegas has over 52 million annual visitors and is positioned to become the largest single recreational market for marijuana in the world!
Financing
Throughout 2017, PNTV was fortunate to raise capital via direct investments into the company at extremely favorable terms. The majority of these direct investments were unsolicited from our existing shareholders who are bullish on the Company and have entered into long term investments with PNTV.
The company also entered into a funding commitment from Kodiak Capital through an S-1 registration statement. Upon SEC approval, PNTV anticipates raising between $5,500,000 to $18,000,000.
Comcast Settlement
In November 2017, the Company prevailed in its prolonged complaint against Comcast and received an undisclosed and confidential settlement. PNTV management is pleased with the outcome.
We felt it was important to explain the history of PNTV as a media company and how we transformed into the marijuana industry. Please read this Press Release we published which answered questions about the Comcast lawsuit, the future of “Vegas on Demand”, and the media technology which is being used to launch WeedTV.
PNTV History and Players Network Media and Technology Report
In conjunction with the Press Release, we published the Player’s Network Media and Technology Report which gave a strong overview of the history of PNTV. It’s an in-depth report for the purpose of educating its current and future shareholders, investors and partners about the media side of PNTV’s business. This report discusses how the Company’s new breakthrough proprietary media technology platform positions it for future success. Here is a link to the full report.
WeedTV.com
Our WeedTV Division launched its video platform with a live event titled “Weed House” and completed seven original television series consisting of over 300 individual segments. Series titles include: “Pot and Pans,” “The Weed Bowl,” “Blunt Talk,” “Budmaster,” “Pillow Toke” and an on-camera competition “The Search for Miss WeedTVSpokesModel.” The winners of the SmokesModel competition are showcased in our inaugural Weed TV Calendar available for purchase here: https://watch.weedtv.com/weedtvcalendar.
Weed House was followed up with a co-production with Look TV and a New Years Eve concert in Denver Colorado, which resulted in an additional five original television series. All our original content will begin to roll on WeedTV in mid-January.
“High Stakes,” our original television reality series about Green Leaf, has secured sponsorships exceeding $450,000 including BioTrackTHC, Sasquash Rosin Press, Advanced Gardens Hydroponics, Oregon’s Only, Nectar for the Gods Nutrients, eFinity lights, Air-Pot, Grow Contractors, Ushio, Digi-Path LAbs, Agromax Equipment, Smart Grow Technologies, and Rx Green Solutions to name a few.
Marijuana Accelerator
Some of you may have noticed that Brett H. Pojunis, one of our Directors, has been extremely quiet 4th Quarter last year. In fact, Brett has been traveling extensively, working with companies in the marijuana industry throughout the country and building the foundation for Marijuana Accelerator. He, in conjunction with our Co-Managing Director Jeffrey Robinson, are setting up Marijuana Accelerator for significant success in 2018. Marijuana Accelerator has set up a presence in both Las Vegas, Nevada and Barcelona, Spain. They have developed an innovative business model that will enable investments and allocation of resources to marijuana ventures. They also announced the MJ Accelerator Program which is a 14 week boot camp accelerator program which focuses on Marijuana Tech and Media projects.
Marijuana Accelerator announced a strategic Strategic Partnership with Mobovivo, a subsidiary of ePlay Digital Inc. (Stock Symbol: EPY) and has been continuing to work with them on some rousing projects, soon to be announced. In addition, the Strategic Partnership and Development Agreement with NightFood Holdings, Inc. (Stock symbol: NGTF) has led to some compelling potential ventures also to be announced soon. Marijuana Accelerator is expected to make additional formal announcements soon.
We expect Marijuana Accelerator to be the “go to” destination for marijuana startups.
Bringing Shareholder Communications In House and Increased Shareholder Base
In early 2017, Brett H. Pojunis established a plan to bring our Shareholder Communications in-house to better serve you, our shareholders. Furthermore, he developed a plan to effectively communicate to our existing shareholder base as well as attract new shareholders and investors. He built an outstanding corporate website (www.PlayersNetwork.com) as well as a website intended for investors (http://ir.PlayersNetwork.com). He wanted to ensure that PNTV was doing all the fundamentals and took a “back to basics” approach. He focused on building our social media presence and increasing the social media reach/audience. One of his ideas was to increase transparency and speak directly to our shareholders and the investment community via Live video on Facebook which has been a tremendous success! Please connect with us on social media, visit PNTV Connect, this page we list our major social media accounts, https://playersnetwork.com/get-connected.
He and I felt it was important to have someone on our team available (besides Brett and I) to handle inbound phone calls and emails from our investors so he brought on David Klepinger. When David is not taking inbound calls from investors he is reaching out to investors who have filled out a form and expressed interest in PNTV. If you would like to reach David, his direct office number is 702.840.3283 and his email address is dklepinger@playersnetwork.com. Also, please visit our Investor Alerts page -https://ir.playersnetwork.com/investor-alerts - to sign up for PNTV communications.
Brett has continued to build the in-house team and has hired team members to assist with social media audience building, email marketing and continued website development and updates. Over the next month you will see an increase in social media interaction, email and SMS (text messages) messages/alerts in addition to more people helping out David contacting investors.
In the beginning of 2017 PNTV had approximately 1,800 shareholders, Brett and his team has increased that by over 500% to nearly 8,400 shareholders! Brett has been doing this while leading the Company in business development activities for PNTV and our holdings.
I want to personally thank you for your continued support and look forward to a fantastic 2018!
Sincerely
Mark Bradley
Chairman/CEO Players Network
About Player’s Network (PNTV)
Player’s Network, Inc. is a diversified holding company operating in media and marijuana. PNTV owns approximately 86% of Green Leaf Farms Holdings, LLC (Green Leaf Farms), which has Nevada state issued cultivation and production license(s). The cultivation license enables Green Leaf Farms to grow marijuana and the production license enables them to create extracts which are used for cartridges, oils and edibles. WeedTV.com is a wholly owned subsidiary which is developing the ultimate resource for the marijuana lifestyle.
For more information please visit www.PlayersNetwork.com
Please visit our Investor Relations site https://ir.playersnetwork.com
Sign up for PNTV investor alerts: https://ir.playersnetwork.com/investor-alerts
PNTV Connect - Connect with us on social media: https://playersnetwork.com/get-connected
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events or future performance of the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluating such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters set in the company's SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.
Investor Inquiries and Contacts:
Investor Inquiries:
Brett H. Pojunis
Director
Players Network, Inc.
Office: 702.840.3272
Email: ir@playersnetwork.com
European Media Inquiries:
Jeff Robinson
Players Network, Inc.
Office: 702.840.329
Email: jrobinson@playersnetwork.com