"Friday April 14, 7:03 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
New Liberty Media Unit, Liberty Livewire, & ACTV Form Global TV/Web Convergence Venture
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 14, 2000--ACTV, Inc. (NASDAQ: IATV - news) and Liberty Livewire LLC, a unit of Liberty Media Group (NYSE: LMG.A - news, LMG.B - news), today announced the creation of a new joint marketing venture: ``HyperTV© with Livewire.' ``HyperTV with Livewire' will use ACTV's patented HyperTV convergence technology to combine the emotive power of television with the interactivity of the Internet.
``HyperTV with Livewire' will provide turnkey convergence services, including application hosting, web authoring services, data management, e-commerce and other value-added services for advertisers, television programmers, studios and networks. Liberty Livewire expects to begin offering ``HyperTV with Livewire' to its clients in the feature film, long-form television, television advertising, and music video production businesses.
David Beddow, Liberty Media Vice President, noted that, ``While providing for the eventual deployment of advanced digital cable set-tops is an important consideration, it is also apparent that a technology is needed to jump-start the process. The next generation of digital cable set-tops will begin deploying over the next several years. In the meantime, ACTV's HyperTV platform has the potential to create a major marketplace for interactive television services right now, prior to the 'one box, one screen' platform's broad availability.'
Liberty Livewire plans to initially install convergence content authoring facilities in Los Angeles and New York to complement ACTV's existing HyperTV New York facility. Liberty Livewire intends to provide a scaleable hosting infrastructure for ``HyperTV with Livewire' designed to accommodate large-scale audiences.
Bruce J. Crowley, President of ACTV's HyperTV Networks subsidiary, said, ``'HyperTV with Livewire' combines ACTV's expertise in convergence with Liberty Livewire's creative expertise and deep customer relationships with Hollywood and the advertising industry. This venture should accelerate the rate at which convergence is adopted by the most creative people in television.'
William C. Samuels, ACTV's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, believes the combination of Liberty Livewire's post-production and distribution assets with HyperTV's patented technology was a natural fit.
Samuels commented, ``We've believed for some time that HyperTV had the potential to re-define interactive television as that term has come to be understood. HyperTV's ability to involve the home computer in the television viewing experience is a feature that has been overlooked by many in the industry, but millions of consumers have already taken the necessary steps to enjoy interactive television.'
Bruce J. Crowley, President of ACTV's HyperTV Networks subsidiary, and Bill Airy, Vice President of Interactive Services for Liberty Livewire, will jointly oversee the activities of ``HyperTV with Livewire.'
ACTV, Inc. was an early pioneer in interactive television technologies. Along with its method patents on HyperTV, ACTV holds patents on technologies that allow for the seamless switching between multiple video streams in a single MPEG multiplex. The company markets those technologies to the entertainment and advertising industries under the trade names ``Individualized TV' and SpotOn(TM).
HyperTV's method patents cover the synchronized delivery of video programming with related Web content and chat. HyperTV enables TV networks, programmers and advertisers to automatically deliver compelling interactive Web content, Web-based advertising, e-commerce, and community chat features that are synchronized to live or pre-recorded TV programming (or any other video-based content). The only requirement to make it work is to have an Internet-connected computer and a TV set located in the same room. According to recent research conducted by The Gartner Group, some 27 million households, or one out of every four TV households in the U.S., have already done just that.
As more sophisticated and powerful digital set-top box technology proliferates, and as more companies offer high-speed Internet access, ACTV anticipates that viewers will enjoy HyperTV experiences with both video and synchronized Web content and functionality delivered simultaneously to their TV or their computer (``one box, one screen').
ABOUT ACTV, INC.
ACTV, Inc. (NASDAQ: IATV - news) has pioneered TV/Web convergence programming with its patented HyperTV© software solution. The company also created interactive one-to-one digital television with its proprietary ``Individualized TV' software and programming capabilities. ACTV offers superior, practical solutions for television programmers, advertisers, cable operators, educators and consumers looking to leverage the emergence of digital television and the broadband delivery infrastructure.
ACTV has relationships with many of the dominant players in the Internet, television and digital technology fields, including key strategic investments from Liberty Digital, Inc. (NASDAQ: LDIG - news) and Motorola's (NYSE: MOT - news) Broadband Communications Sector. For more information, visit ACTV's Web site at actv.com or visit hypertv.com.
Both Liberty Digital and Liberty Livewire LLC are controlled by Liberty Media Group (LMG.A, LMG.B: NYSE).
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Contact:
Bratskeir & Company (for ACTV, Inc.)
Mike Rosen
212-679-2233, ext. 213
or
Liberty Media Group
Vivian Carr
720-875-5406"
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