WavePhore Expands WaveTop Service With New Media Rich Content Partners; Warner Bros. Online and News America Digital Publishing Sign on WaveTop Service
PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 23, 1998--WavePhore Inc. (NASDAQ:WAVO), the leading new media content integrator and architect of digital delivery systems, Wednesday announced the signing of new and expanded information provider agreements with two of the Web's leading providers.
Both providers are working with WaveTop to capitalize on the service's unique ability to offer consumers an enhanced web experience, using WaveTop's nationwide broadcast network.
WavePhore WaveTop and Warner Bros. Online launched this past week a new area, The Warner Bros. Online Theater on WaveTop (http://www.wavetop.net). This theater offers a visually rich 'virtual movie theater', where home PC users can watch selected clips from unique Warner Bros. properties.
Uniquely provided via the WaveTop broadcast network, the theater instantly plays large format, high resolution clips, without the need for the user to first click and then wait for a slow download over their internet connection.
"Warner Bros. Online is very excited to work with WaveTop in launching the Warner Bros. Online Theater featuring our unique brand of entertainment content," said Jim Moloshok, senior vice president, Warner Bros. Online. "The WaveTop service offers us a unique way in which to deliver this rich content to the consumers, beyond what they would experience over a normal dial-up connection."
News America Digital Publishing has signed an agreement to provide the WaveTop service with information from Fox News Online and Fox Sports Online. In particular, content from these popular sites delivered via WaveTop will emphasize video from Fox News and Fox Sports.
"The WavePhore platform allows us to develop a richer and more compelling consumer experience," said Jordan Kurzweil, NADP's vice president of product development. "It enables us to deliver the type of programming consumers have come to expect from Fox News and Fox Sports."
WaveTop's unique electronic commerce and advertising-supported service also provides multi-media programming, including news, investment advice and information, children's programming, weather, free software downloads and much more, all supplied by the Web's leading content providers.
Distributed nationally via the unused portion of television signals from 264 PBS member stations around the country, WaveTop currently reaches more than 99 percent of U.S. households.
The WaveTop service is currently accessible from any PC that is enabled with a TV tuner board and WaveTop's free software. WaveTop is compatible with Microsoft Windows 95 and is part of the Microsoft Windows 98 operating system.
WavePhore is a leader in the industry bringing new programming and content to home viewers through the television medium. The company is a member of the IP Multicast Initiative (IPMI), an industry committee that is drafting the specifications for IP Multicast, the data broadcasting standard adopted by the recently formed Advanced Television Enhancement Forum (ATVEF) for enhanced television programming.
Enhanced television enables a variety of new information, entertainment and commerce opportunities using data broadcasting alone or in conjunction with video programming and set-top boxes.
How WaveTop Works
WaveTop's PC data broadcast service works by embedding data streams into the unseen portion of existing broadcast television signals using the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI). WaveTop has partnered with PBS National Datacast to broadcast data over the television signals of its 264 PBS member stations.
Using a simple browser interface and a broadcast ready PC (a standard PC with a built-in TV tuner or equipped with an add-on TV tuner card), users will interact with automatically downloaded information, entertainment and software. Computers equipped with TV tuners and WaveTop software transparently receive, decode and cache content without the bottleneck of the Internet or tying up a phone line.
Rich Content
WaveTop content providers are among the world's leading media companies, including Time Inc. New Media, which includes the on-line versions of People, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Money, Fortune and Sports Illustrated for Kids and ZDNet News, on-line versions of Family PC and Yahoo Internet Life.
Also providing content are USA TODAY, The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, CBS SportsLine, PBS ONLINE, Warner Bros. Online, Bloomberg L.P., The Weather Channel, N2K's Music Boulevard, BarnesandNoble.com, Universal Press Syndicate - Comics, Women's Wire and Prevention's Healthy Ideas, NECX, Astrology.Net, Dummies Daily and UltimateTV.
Electronic Commerce and Advertising Supported
WaveTop is supported by leading online electronic commerce vendors and consumer-brand charter advertisers. Electronic commerce vendors in the WaveTop Store online shopping mall include companies such as Barnes & Noble and eToys. Advertisers on the WaveTop service include Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp., NextCard Visa, Kellogg Co., Lincoln-Mercury Inc., Mobil Corp., Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Salomon Smith Barney Holdings and Spiegel Inc.
WaveTop's ability to deliver high-bandwidth applications to the home without the download delays associated with modems allows advertisers to send more creative multimedia advertisements such as movie and video clips, games, software downloads and micro sites.
About WavePhore
WavePhore Inc. is the leading new media content integrator and architect of digital delivery systems. It partners with the foremost providers of news, business data, Web-based content and multimedia programming to deliver selective intelligence and quality content to an information-dependent society.
WavePhore (www.wavephore.com) enables people and enterprises to more efficiently receive, manage and productively use all types of urgent, insightful, or relevant information. The company's technologies and services aggregate, filter, customize and distribute digital content (text, graphics, music, and video) using a wide range of reliable, low-cost broadcast (FM sideband, TV-VBI), satellite and Web-based delivery systems.
It has technology sourcing and strategic alliances with Microsoft, Intel, Compaq, Sony, Gateway, STB, ADS and PBS National Datacast, in addition to information service agreements with some two hundred Fortune 1,000 companies worldwide.
Additional information on WavePhore is available via the Internet at wavephore.com. Information on its business units can be found at: wavetop.net, wavephore.net and newscast.com.
About Warner Bros. Online
Warner Bros. Online, a division of Time Warner Entertainment Co., L.P. is consistently in the top three of the most-trafficked studio sites on the Internet, according to Media Metrix. The company's focus is on producing entertainment programming for the Internet and commercial online services, with sites accessible through the World Wide Web at warnerbros.com.
About News America Digital Publishing
News America Digital Publishing, formed in November 1997, is the electronic publishing division of News Corporation's (NYSE:NWS) News America Publishing Group. NADP operates the company's Internet properties: TV Guide Entertainment Network (www.tvgen.com), Fox Sports Online (www.foxsports.com), Fox News Online (www.foxnews.com), and Fox Market Wire (www.foxmarketwire.com); and Kesmai, a multiplayer games company. News Corporation Online is one of the top 35 domain consolidations on the Internet (Relevant Knowledge, July 1998).
Note to Editors: Certain of the above statements regarding WavePhore constitute forward-looking statements, which may involve risks and uncertainties.
Actual results could differ materially from such forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, technology changes, competitive developments, industry and market acceptance of new products and services and risk factors listed from time to time in WavePhore's SEC filings.
Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
CONTACT:
WavePhore Inc., Phoenix
(WaveTop Contact)
Jennifer Schreier, 602/952-5500 ext. 239 (Investors)
jschreier@wavephore.com
www.wavephore.com
or
Neale-May & Partners
(WaveTop Contact)
Bernadette Callahan, 650/328-5555 ext. 120 (Media)
callahan@nealemay.com
or
Warner Bros. Online
(WaveTop Contact)
Harry Medved, 818/977-3011
harry_medved@warnerbros.com
KEYWORD: ARIZONA
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