"Monday July 30, 10:32 am Eastern Time
Press Release
Princeton Video Image, RespondTV and Tribune Expand the Capabilities Of ITV With Interactive Baseball Broadcast
Enhanced Viewers Can ``Catch'' A Ball From Their Couch During The WGN-TV Cubs Broadcast On Tuesday, July 31
LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 30, 2001-- Princeton Video Image, Inc. (Nasdaq: PVII - news), RespondTV and the Tribune Company have developed a unique interactive TV experience that will debut Tuesday night, July 31 at 9pm CT during WGN-TV's Chicago Cubs broadcast against the San Diego Padres. Tomorrow night's Cubs broadcast will feature virtual advertising behind home plate provided by PVI, the Emmy Award winning leader in virtual advertising and imaging solutions, and those ads will be made interactive by RespondTV, a leading infrastructure provider for interactive TV content. Viewers with internet enabled set-top boxes such as UltimateTV, WebTV and AOLTV have the unique opportunity to interact four times during the game and receive a free logo baseball compliments of Fotoball, USA Inc.
Additionally, the San Diego broadcast on Cox Channel 4 will feature one set of in-program ads while the WGN-TV broadcast will feature a different set. The WGN-TV broadcast will feature interactivity.
The WGN-TV broadcast will mark the first time virtual advertising is made interactive. Cylo, Inc., a dynamic force in ITV strategy, design and production, developed the interactive experience using RespondTV's development tools. RespondTV will provide the back-end infrastructure and transaction processing for the campaign.
``Our relationship with PVI and Tribune is a perfect example of how Interactive TV can be used to extend the consumer-brand relationship in innovative ways, said Richard Fisher, President of RespondTV. ''We look forward to expanding these new capabilities to additional sporting events and into new areas such as interactive in-program product placements.``
Brown Williams, Chairman of Princeton Video Image stated, ``PVI's virtual in-program insertions are the ideal consumer interface for Interactive TV. In a sense, PVI is providing the customer interactive front end, and RespondTV is providing the interactive response. It's a great combination.''
PVI and RespondTV intend to extend the functionality of interactive virtual advertising and in-program product placements to additional programs.
About Princeton Video Image, Inc., (www.pvi-inc.com)
The global leader in virtual advertising solutions for television, PVI has developed and marketed a real-time video insertion system. This system, through patented computer vision technology, places computer-generated electronic images into television broadcasts of sporting events as well as other programming. These electronic images range from simple corporate names and logos to sophisticated 3-D images and animated effects. PVI has provided video insertion services for thousands of live telecasts worldwide, including broadcasts of Major League Baseball, National League Football, professional soccer, motor sports, and other live events. PVI is the exclusive virtual advertising provider for NFL International broadcasts. Beyond sports venues, PVI's virtual imaging technology provides branding-oriented program enhancements for The Early Show on CBS. The Company is headquartered in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, with offices in New York City, Brussels and Johannesburg, as well as licensees' offices in Madrid, Seoul and Mexico City.
About RespondTV
RespondTV is a leading infrastructure and service provider for interactive television content delivery and response management. With partnerships spanning all major ITV middleware platforms, RespondTV is in a unique position to deliver a cross-platform, end-to-end delivery system for interactive television content. The company offers television programmers, network operators, and advertisers the most comprehensive enhanced television services available. Services range from serving, hosting, reporting, and transaction processing capabilities to t-commerce and direct response applications.
RespondTV has built a robust state-of-the-art server network that can handle ETV traffic generated by television-sized audiences. RespondTV is compatible with most major standards-based enhanced TV systems and set-top boxes including AOLTV, Liberate, Microsoft TV, OpenTV, Philips, PowerTV, Sony, WebTV, WorldGate, and UltimateTV.
RespondTV is backed by equity investments from: AT&T Corp., Comcast, GE Capital, Integrity Partners, Liberty Digital Inc., Sequoia Partners, Showtime Networks, Tribune Ventures and United Television. Additional information on RespondTV, Inc. can be found online at www.respondtv.com.
Any statements contained in this press release that relate to future plans, events or performance are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, those relating to market acceptance, dependence on strategic partners and third party sales, contractual restraints on use of PVI's technology, a rapidly changing commercial and technological environment, competition, possible adverse regulations, need for additional financing, intellectual property rights and litigation, and other risks identified in PVI's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results, events or performance may differ materially. PVI undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
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Contact:
Princeton Video Image, Inc.
Sam McCleery, Vice President, Business Development
609/912-9400
pvi-inc.com
or
Investor Contact:
Morgen-Walke Associates, Inc.
Investor Relations
Cheryl Schneider/Brian Schaffer
212/850-5600
or
RespondTV
Kasey O'Connell, 415/901-9473
kasey@respondtv.com"
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