Wednesday December 15, 8:06 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Yack; WorldGate Communications
Yack and WorldGate Sign Distribution Agreement to Bring Chat And Web Event Guide to TV
Yack to Bring WorldGate Subscribers Comprehensive Listings Of Celebrity Chat, Live Web Events and Internet Programming
NEW YORK, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Yack(SM) and WorldGate Communications (Nasdaq: WGAT - news) announced today a new content distribution agreement that will bring the web's most comprehensive guide to live net events to the WorldGate(SM) Service. WorldGate, the leading provider of high performance, low-cost Internet access through TV uses standard cable set top converters to deliver Internet, e-mail and interactive advertising to cable subscribers without the need of a personal computer. Yack's (www.yack.com) comprehensive listings will connect WorldGate subscribers to the rapidly expanding world of live Internet events.
``Clearly Internet access is not limited to PC owners and we see this exciting distribution partnership with WorldGate Communications Inc. as a logical step into the future of convergence,' said Jeff Morris, CEO and president of Yack. ``We look forward to bringing WorldGate subscribers and the cable community the very best the web has to offer via our IPG (Internet Program Guide(SM)). We believe that users' immediate access to our comprehensive guide from the set-top box will bring a rich new dynamic to their Internet experience as well as provide event producers with incremental viewers to their live web events.'
``We are committed to bringing our customers the best in both television and the Internet,' said Hal Krisbergh, CEO and Chairman, WorldGate Communications. ``Faced with so many choices on the Internet today, we think our customers will love Yack's ability to deliver comprehensive, up-to-the minute events to choose from.'
About Yack
With offices in both New York and the San Francisco Bay Area, Yack is the authority on what's happening in the ever-expanding world of online events, streaming audio and video as well as chats. Named the ``Best Guide To Live Events' and one of the ``100 Best Sites for 2000' by Yahoo! Internet Life, Yack guides users to more than 15,000 web events produced each week by offering an unparalleled, up-to-the-minute and easily searchable database of listings, original editorial reviews and content, as well as a unique, personalized daily email reminder service. The Yack Guide is also co-branded and syndicated online through top ISPs, websites and cable modem partners; in print through newspapers and magazines; and over the airwaves through radio and television broadcasts. Partners include AT&T Worldnet, AltaVista, iWon.com, LookSmart, Planet Direct, BellSouth, InfoSpace, Comcast and United Features Syndicate, among others.
About WorldGate Communications Inc.
Headquartered near Philadelphia, WorldGate Communications, a leader in the development of interactive television, has the first commercially deployed service that enables cable subscribers to access a full array of high performance, low-cost Internet services and e-mail through their television sets and the cable television infrastructure rather than a personal computer and telephone. The WorldGate Service marries WorldGate's proprietary technology with the television set platform to use either the existing advanced analog or digital cable converter along with a remote control or wireless keyboard to bring the Internet to cable subscribers. Using advanced analog converters; the Service operates at more than 2 times the speed of a standard 56 Kbps telephone modem. With digital converters, the Service operates at speeds up to 38 Mbps, over 3.5 times faster than a typical cable modem. In addition, the Company's Channel HyperLinking technology allows viewers instant access from the program they are watching to a related Web site or locally available information sources. For more information, interested parties may go to www.wgate.com. WorldGate Communications' stock is traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol WGAT.
SOURCE: Yack; WorldGate Communications |
