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Intertainer and barnesandnoble.com Lay Foundation for New Shopping Experience
PR Newswire - August 11, 1998 14:40
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Companies Strike Letter of Intent for E-Commerce and Advertising via Intertainer's New Interactive Media Service
NEW YORK and SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Entertainment- on-demand leader Intertainer, Inc. and top retailer barnesandnoble.com announced plans today to build a virtual store on the Intertainer service. Intertainer provides a non-Internet interactive gateway to movies, music, TV and shopping distributed by partners such as Comcast and US WEST to PCs and TVs.
Via Intertainer's virtual private network, users will browse and buy books and software in a high-quality audio- and video-enhanced environment. This new e-commerce environment will include unprecedented content such as broadcast-quality video interviews and book reviews not possible online. In addition, barnesandnoble.com will join other advertising pioneers including VISA and Airwalk on a new medium combining direct marketing and broadcast features.
In a separate agreement between Intertainer and STV Communications, Inc., the Intertainer service will feature broadcast-quality video software previews produced by STV Communications. Consumers will be able to preview software titles before making purchase decisions.
"barnesandnoble.com developed innovative relationship with the leading site on the Internet. Intertainer's non-Internet entertainment service provides the next logical step in bringing e-commerce into the home," said David Palmieri, Director of New Business Development, barnesandnoble.com. "This exciting partnership brings new elements to the presentation of books and software, such as full-motion video and CD-quality sound."
Said Intertainer Co-chairman and Co-founder Jonathan Taplin, "Intertainer delivers true interactive, on-demand shopping and entertainment from one source. With its focus on bringing retail into the interactive age, barnesandnoble.com is an ideal fit for us."
Added Terrence Coles, Intertainer's Vice President of Commerce & Advertising, "Intertainer offers entertainment and shopping users want when they want it. Our model breaks through cluttered media messages by streamlining content and advertising to suit the individual consumer. E-commerce and advertising relationships such as the one with barnesandnoble.com help to make our model a reality."
The new co-branded store will feature the full range of barnesandnoble.com products found online. For example, selections will include popular books from Oprah's Book Club and software from the Intel Showcase.
Other Intertainer content hails from top creators and/or distributors of popular movies, music, games and interactive commerce, such as Time Warner, Sony and Buena Vista (Disney), as well as TV content pending from NBC. Intertainer investors include major media and technology companies Comcast, Intel, Sony, US WEST and NBC.
In addition to focusing on robust and innovative content, Intertainer also approaches entertainment on demand from a unique technical perspective. Unlike proprietary or Internet-based services, Intertainer's open architecture and virtual private network enhance quality and flexibility for consumers, distributors and advertisers.
Intertainer is enhanced by its use of an "intelligent agent" from Firefly Network, Inc. that "reads" user preferences and provides personalized recommendations for programming options. Other technology partners involved in the design of Intertainer include Intel, Sun Microsystems, Sony and Informix.
About Intertainer
Intertainer, Inc., the leading provider of home entertainment services on demand, is defining the convergence of entertainment and technology. Intertainer's interactive entertainment and e-commerce provide customers with a personal gateway to thousands of hours of diverse movies, music, TV, shopping and information programming direct to the PC or TV. For more information, visit intertainer.com.
About barnesandnoble.com
barnesandnoble.com offers the largest selection of in-stock titles of any bookseller online, with over 650,000 titles in its distribution center and access to over 2 million more from more than 27,000 publishers. It was the first online bookseller to offer deep discounts, including up to 40 percent off hardcover books and up to 90 percent on its selection of thousands of bargain books.
barnesandnoble.com is the exclusive bookseller to America Online (AOL)'s 12 million subscribers (Keyword: bn) and has strategic partnerships with ten of the top twenty web sites, including ZDNet, CNN and Lycos. Its affiliate network has established "remote storefronts" with more than 16,000 Web sites through its "Affiliate Network," which pays the highest commissions and has the best reporting tools of any similar bookseller program in e-commerce.
About STV Communications
Founded in 1994, STV Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of products and services for electronic merchandising and marketing. The Santa Monica-based company provides innovative marketing solutions enabling consumers to make more informed purchasing decisions. STV earned the "Best Merchandising" Award at RetailVision Spring '98. Their current clients include retailers Computer City, Virgin Megastores, Fry's Electronics and Staples, and software publishers Activision, Cendant Software, Electronic Arts, LucasArts and Microsoft.
SOURCE Intertainer, Inc.
/CONTACT: Maggie Thill of BSMG Worldwide, 310-442-2565, or
mthill@bsmg.com, for Intertainer, Inc./
/Web site: barnesandnoble.com
/Web site: intertainer.com
In LATU067, Intertainer and barnesandnoble.com Lay Foundation for New Shopping Experience, moved earlier today, we are advised by a representative of the company that the fourth graph, first sentence should read "barnesandnoble.com has developed innovative relationships with the leading sites on the Internet" rather than "barnesandnoble.com developed innovative relationship with the leading site on the Internet," as originally issued.
/PRNewswire -- Aug. 11/
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