[TUNE] News June 16, 12:49 Eastern Time LOS ANGELES (June 16) BUSINESS WIRE
-June 16, 1998--DMX Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of TCI Music Inc.,
has signed an agreement to purchase the assets of AT&T's satellite mall
network, it was announced Tuesday by Lon Troxel, chief executive officer
and president of DMX.
The mall network, formerly used for AT&T's Tridom's MallSat Service, is
deployed in more than 400 regional and super-regional malls throughout
the United States.
The asset ownership transferred to DMX immediately and will allow DMX to
provide satellite-based, shared data transmission services, such as
credit-card processing and data file transfer to mall-based specialty
stores and retail chains. These services, in addition to those already
provided by DMX, will be available through a new program, DMX MallNet.
DMX MallNet is a satellite-based, fully digital, multimedia
communication service network. The MallNet service is composed of DMX's
flagship offering of up to 120 channels of CD-quality, commercial free,
stereo music programming. The network is also capable of delivering full
motion video, Primestar digital television and two-way data services to
mall-based retailers.
With the launch of MallNet, DMX becomes the only provider in the
industry to offer one-stop shopping to mall management and retailers for
all of their audio, video and data services. DMX is also the only
provider in the industry to offer all of these services to any retailer
regardless of the number of locations.
Mall developers will enjoy numerous benefits from the DMX MallNet
offering. They will be able to offer potential and current tenants
market differentiation with the new value-added services and receive
revenues for the DMX-provided services while avoiding the clutter of
unnecessary equipment on their mall roofs.
In conjunction with the acquisition of the AT&T network, DMX has
established a separate department focused on the mall and retail
industry that will work with developers, management and tenants to
market, deliver and support DMX MallNet Services.
The DMX MallNet Department is headed by Jim Garrigan, vice president,
MallNet Services, who was formerly an associate of AT&T on the MallSat
Service offering.
As a result of the agreement with AT&T, DMX will be in a position to
forge strategic relationships with both large and small mall developers
to co-market and develop new and innovative products and services for
the mall market.
Looking forward to the new millennium, DMX plans to expand the number of
malls it services and will be one point of contact to satisfy any
retailer's or mall developer's audio, video or data needs from a single
store to a retail chain with hundreds of locations.
"This agreement with AT&T is an important strategic step in DMX's
development of the retail market," said Troxel.
"By establishing relationships directly with mall developers, DMX will
be able to efficiently provide a myriad of communications services to
all retailers within their malls and to anticipate applications of new
technology to these venues. These relationships will benefit all DMX
MallNet customers."
"With the purchase of these assets, DMX appears to be well positioned to
serve the needs of this growing market," said Vijay Marathe of AT&T
Business Development.
DMX, a wholly owned subsidiary of TCI Music (Nasdaq SmallCap
Market:TUNE) (Nasdaq SmallCap Market:TUNEP), programs, markets and
distributes worldwide its premium digital music service, Digital Music
Express, currently providing more than 95 channels of continuous,
24-hour, commercial-free, CD-quality music programming.
The service is available on four continents and is provided to more than
2.8 million homes and 50,000 businesses in the United States, making it
the most widely available music service in the world. For more
information about DMX, access the company's World Wide Web site at
dmxmusic.com.
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CONTACT: DMX Inc.
Rachel Lyons, 310/444-1744, 310/444-1760 (fax)
or
Jane Ayer Public Relations
Jane Ayer, 310/581-1330, 310/581-1335 (fax) |
