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Wednesday January 10, 8:11 am Eastern Time
Press Release
ACTV Adds Proven Traffic and Billing Capabilities to SpotOn iTV Advertising Service
Company Acquires Assets of VisionTel, Inc., a Subsidiary of nCUBE Corporation
NEW YORK & FOSTER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 10, 2001--ACTV, Inc. (Nasdaq: IATV - news) today announced it has acquired the assets of VisionTel, Inc., a subsidiary of nCUBE Corporation, the worldwide provider of scalable broadband streaming media infrastructure for virtually any network. Under the agreement, ACTV and nCUBE have formed a new entity, AdVision Systems, LLC, which will incorporate virtually all of VisionTel's assets, products, services and IP. ACTV will own a majority interest in AdVision Systems and will manage its operation. nCUBE will retain a minority interest. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The acquisition is aimed at expanding the product offerings and accelerating the growth of ACTV subsidiary Digital ADCO. Digital ADCO's lead product is SpotOn(sm), an end-to-end, software-based and TV-centric system that enables the delivery and accounting of highly targeted and interactive TV advertising, featuring full-motion video (http://www.spoton.tv). VisionTel's principal product is the AdVision® software suite for advertising sales management in cable, broadband, broadcast, satellite, and Internet services. Its clients include AT&T, Time Warner, Cox Communications, Texas Cable News Channel and Captivate Network, Inc., among others.
``SpotOn has made such a dramatic impact on TV advertising that existing traffic and billing systems aren't designed to fully leverage its capabilities,'' said Kevin Liga, iCEO of Digital ADCO and ACTV's chief technology officer. ``nCUBE's VisionTel team built a product for the new age of advertising and now, with the creation of AdVision Systems, we can maximize SpotOn's targeting capabilities and provide an integrated back-channel capacity for TV-commerce transactions.''
Liga added, ``AdVision will also continue to be a powerful stand-alone product for the management of electronic and multimedia advertising. We plan to continue working with other traffic and billing systems, but now have the flexibility we need to continue our aggressive development of SpotOn.''
Michael Pohl, president, nCUBE Corporation, said, ``By combining the resources and assets of ACTV's Digital ADCO and VisionTel, we are creating a powerful product for customers to be able to quickly respond to today's dynamic advertising environment.''
Tom Walsh, president of VisionTel, will join ACTV along with a majority of VisionTel's software development, sales, customer support and quality assurance staff.
ACTV created its Digital ADCO subsidiary with Motorola Broadband Communications Sector to redefine traditional TV advertising. AT&T has agreed to deploy the SpotOn technology in Aurora, CO, in conjunction with a project managed by AT&T Media Services. ACTV, Motorola and OpenTV have joined forces for the international deployment of SpotOn. Other SpotOn partners include Grey Global Group, Young & Rubicam's The Media Edge, Starcom Worldwide, Microsoft TV, Scientific-Atlanta, PowerTV, Liberate, nCUBE, Qpass, Net Perceptions, Nielsen Media Research, CYLO, ARTiFACT, Random/Order and GSD&M, among others.
About ACTV, Inc.
ACTV, Inc.'s (Nasdaq: IATV - news) patented enhanced media technologies are incorporated into the company's Enhanced Media Services, Inc. subsidiary. These technologies are marketed under the brand names HyperTV® (http://www.hypertv.com) and Bottle Rocket (http://www.bottlerocket.com), among other products and services. ACTV also created interactive, one-to-one digital television with its proprietary One To One TV(sm) software and programming capabilities. SpotOn(sm), the advertising application of One To One TV, is a service of ACTV subsidiary Digital ADCO, Inc (http://www.spoton.tv).
ACTV has developed an extensive patent portfolio that broadly covers the core methodologies for enhancing television, radio and other audio visual programming with an array of synchronous and non-synchronous Internet-based functions, and for the creation and delivery of interactive, one-to-one digital television.
Based in New York City, ACTV has key strategic relationships with many of the dominant players in the Internet, television and digital technology fields, including Liberty Digital, Inc. (Nasdaq: LDIG - news), Motorola (NYSE: MOT - news) Broadband Communications Sector, OpenTV (Nasdaq and AEX: OPTV), and Liberty Livewire Corporation (Nasdaq: LWIRA - news). For more information, visit actv.com.
About nCUBE
nCUBE (www.ncube.com) is the worldwide leader in providing scalable broadband streaming media infrastructure. Broadband operators worldwide count on nCUBE for streaming media solutions that include broadband video-on-demand, IP streaming media, and advertising insertion. The company's core product line, the n4 streaming media appliance, scales from 100 megabits per second to 128 gigabits per second of streaming media from a single system. nCUBE has partnered with leaders in interactive television and content for every major delivery path to the home. They include RealNetworks, Enron/Blockbuster, Bertelsmann, Telewest, Gemstar-TV Guide, Liberate, AT&T and Time Warner. nCUBE is a member of the MPEG4 Standards Committee and one of the first members of the Internet Streaming Media Alliance. The company is based in Foster City, Calif., with sales and customer support offices worldwide.
This news release contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements which are other than statements of historical facts. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, product and service demand and acceptance, changes in technology, economic conditions, the impact of competition and pricing, government regulation, and other risks defined in this document and in statements filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All such forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, and whether made by or on behalf of the companies, are expressly qualified by the cautionary statements and any other cautionary statements which may accompany the forward-looking statements. In addition, the companies disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.
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Contact:
For ACTV, Inc.
Media Relations:
Bratskeir & Company
Mike Rosen, 212/679-2233
mrosen@bratskeir.com
or
Financial Media:
Brainerd Communicators
Kim Holt, 212/986-6667
holt@braincomm.com
or
Investor Relations:
ACTV, Inc.
Ted O'Donnell/Bill Roll
212/217-1600
ir@actv.com
or
For nCUBE:
Jennifer Hicks. 206/381-3600
Jennifer@jlmpartners.com |
