Rainbow Media Holdings Inc.'s Fuse music network's outdoor sign will appear
this week in New York's Times Square after all, a spokesman said Tuesday.
The sign -- featuring a mobile home dubbed the "Fuse Beach House," in the
network’s latest swipe at MTV: Music Television -- "is supposed to go up
tonight," Sal Cataldi of Cataldi PR said. "The Bertlesmann Building finally said
we could put it up if we removed the words 'kosher pool.'"
Interestingly, MTV parent Viacom Inc., which sold the billboard-advertising
space, had approved the Fuse sign, but Bertelsmann -- which owns the BMG and RCA
record labels -- suddenly balked at the sign as being "tacky" last Thursday,
Fuse said last week.
Fuse president Marc Juris had promised that if the billboard were blocked, he
would make sure the sign was visible "somewhere in Times Square," even if the
network had to use a flatbed truck.
The billboard depicts several Fuse on-air personalities as trailer-park trash
beneath the copy, "It's not the Hamptons, it's not near the beach, it’s not even
a house."
The sign also includes mention of Fuse being "the alternative to mainstream
music television" that offers "music videos all day."
