It's "BUZZTIME" !
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Thursday February 3, 1:41 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
BUZZTIME and FOXSports.com Report Successful
Launch of Interactive Football Game
BUZZTIME's QB1 "Predict The Play(TM)" Football Game Generates Exceptional "Average
Connect Time" of 74 Minutes Per User
NEW YORK and CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 3, 2000-- BUZZTIME Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary
of NTN Communications Inc. (AMEX:NTN - news), and FOXSports.com, a unit of News Corp.'s (NYSE:NWS - news)
News Digital Media, today announced that the average connect time per user, or stickiness, for the co-branded Internet
version of the QB1 game on FOXSports.com, known as ``Predict The Play,' increased to a high of 74 minutes during the
NFC Championship.
Through a recent agreement between BUZZTIME and FOXSports.com, BUZZTIME's football prediction online game,
QB1©, was accessible via FOXSports.com during the NFC Playoffs. During the three-week period, QB1 usage increased
207 percent with the highest ratings experienced during the NFC Championship game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
and the St. Louis Rams. The game is scheduled to run on FOXSports.com for the 2000 football season.
``These results are a testament of the true value that QB1 provides to our broadcast partners at FOXSports.com,' said V.
Tyrone Lam, president of BUZZTIME. ``QB1 has been a proven winner for years, and now it is helping FOXSports.com
extend the viewer experience and lengthen viewing time on the Internet and on television sets.'
Lam added, ``The 74 minutes that we are producing, according to recent press, is more than twice the staying time as other
enhanced TV football programs.'
BUZZTIME and FOXSports.com executed a one-month rollout designed to gradually scale the user load and track the
effectiveness of different types of promotion. The campaign began with simple promotional e-mails to existing BUZZTIME and
FOXSports.com users and increased to include promotion on FOXSports.com and during the actual TV game broadcast on
Fox.
In-game promotion included various combinations of pre-game announcements, inserts within the FOX Ticker, and using game
announcers to encourage fans to ``Predict the Play(TM).' Promotional efforts by the on-air talent were accompanied by
onscreen graphics of the user interface with instructions on how to access QB1 via the Internet.
``We are ecstatic with the initial user results for FOXSports.com's QB1 football game,' said FOXSports.com Senior Vice
President Danny Greenberg. ``As we deliver this exciting game to football fans next season we look forward to expanding on
the stickiness of QB1 and seeing it become the most popular interactive football game.'
This season's enhanced television test included the QB1 play- along application, integrated chat and interactive advertisements
called I-Mercials(TM). QB1, owned and produced by BUZZTIME, is played by predicting the next offensive play in the
football game before the snap of the ball. Points are earned or lost based on the accuracy of predictions. I-Mercials are
interactive ads displayed on players' computer screens concurrently with a like ad appearing on television.
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