MSFT and ITVU
INTERVU Announces Support of Microsoft Windows Media Technologies 4.0
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 14, 1999--
"Microsoft Windows Media Technologies 4.0 offers the highest
levels of quality, performance and ease of use," said Ricardo Ramirez,
president and CEO of Onradio.com. "We're very pleased to offer our
streaming stations a high level of technology and service available
through our alliances with Microsoft and INTERVU."
"We are very excited about working with Microsoft and INTERVU to
deliver the Weekly Top 40 in the latest Windows Media Technologies
version," said Rick Dees, the award winning radio/TV personality. "We
believe this will help further the expansion of our global listener
base, complementing the traditional radio wave accessibility."
"In our expansion to deliver TV-quality music videos to our
consumers, we turned to INTERVU because of their experience in
delivering broadband content over the Internet using Microsoft's
technologies," said Kevin Larson, project manager for Big Video at
Tunes.com. "This new section of our site is the latest in a series of
broadband offerings and provides innovative multimedia content that
will appeal to our high-speed Internet music fans."
About INTERVU Inc.
INTERVU provides Web site owners and content publishers with
services for the delivery or "streaming" of live and on-demand video
and audio content over the Internet. INTERVU's services automate the
publishing, distribution and programming of video and audio content.
INTERVU uses a scalable, patent-pending distribution network comprised
of servers strategically located in major Internet hosting centers.
INTERVU's customers use its video and audio distribution services to
transmit entertainment, sports, news, business to business,
advertising and distance learning content.
-------------------------
INTERVU Further Strengthens Position in Music Industry
With the Announcement of Seven New Customers
With today's launch of Microsoft Windows Media Technologies 4.0,
INTERVU Inc. (Nasdaq: ITVU), a leading service provider for Internet
video and audio delivery solutions, announced its support of
Microsoft's new software platform. INTERVU has also announced seven
new music industry customers that will utilize Microsoft's new
software. Windows Media Technologies 4.0 offers content providers a
high-quality streaming media platform, which includes the Windows
Media Player, Services, and Tools. INTERVU has designed its services
and proprietary network to be compatible with Microsoft's streaming
software. A majority of INTERVU's customers produce and distribute
streaming content that provides playback with the Windows Media
Player. "We are pleased about the overwhelming support we have
received for the Windows Media Technologies platform from such
leaders and innovators in the streaming media industry," said Will
Poole, Senior Director of Marketing and Business Development,
Streaming Media Division at Microsoft. "INTERVU, specifically, has
been a strong supporter of our technologies and is helping Microsoft
to deliver high-quality and leading-edge services to our joint
customers." Among some of INTERVU's customers that will be using the
new version Microsoft launched today are:
AtomFilms (www.atomfilms.com): AtomFilms offers exclusive weekly
screenings of short films, animation, and digital media. Its
distinguished catalog features Academy Award nominees, Hollywood
stars, festival award-winners, and groundbreaking digital animation.
In the month following its March 1 launch, AtomFilms.com served movies
to hundreds of thousands of Web visitors.
Beatflow.com (www.beatflow.com): Beatflow.com, the one-stop site
for the electronic music scene, offers music news, reviews, interviews
and feature articles with major artists and DJs such as Crystal
Method, Fatboy Slim, Deepsky, Uberzone and more. Beatflow.com's
streaming station will feature live specialty shows from the world's
top DJs and the very best music the electronic scene has to offer.
MUSIC CHOICE (www.musicchoicelive.com): MUSIC CHOICE - the
world's first provider of digital music on cable offers four different
channels of commercial-free music streams ('80s, Alternative Rock, New
Releases, and R&B Hits) and is accessible from the Microsoft Internet
Explorer 5 radio toolbar and a preset button on MSN Web Events Radio
Station Guide.
Onradio.com: All stations streaming on the Onradio.com network
will incorporate Windows Media Player Technologies 4.0 when it is
available in its final version. Onradio.com's streaming stations have
a potential on-air audience reach of more than 15 million listeners
according to Arbitron measurements. One Onradio.com affiliate - WKQX
Q101 FM in Chicago (www.q101.com) - will be using the new software
immediately.
Rick Dees: The radio personality Rick Dees, host of The Rick Dees
Weekly Top 40, is expanding his successful radio program onto the Net.
The show, which reaches 30 million people in over 60 countries, will
be re-broadcast on a continuous loop at www.rick.com
Tunes.com: Tunes.com, a music hub Web site, recently launched
BigVideo, a new broadband video section on RollingStone.com that will
feature an initial collection of nearly 100 TV-quality music videos
available on demand in 300 Kilobits per second data rates. BigVideo's
broadband selections will use the Windows Media Player and will be
streamed over INTERVU's high-performance streaming media network.
The Ultimate Band List (UBL.COM): UBL.COM a comprehensive music
resource on the Web featuring artist biographies, MP3 downloads and an
online store. Among many other unique music-oriented offerings, this
leading directory of music content allows artists to create a link
from their Web site to UBL.COM. Coming soon, UBL.COM will enable
independent artists to create and publish audio files to UBL.COM using
the Windows Media Player and streaming the content over INTERVU's
dispersed network.
----------
A link on the ITVU board led to this possible explanation of its price
runup (http://www.daytraders.org/songwire/)
Intervu's meteoric rise this week has had some scratching their heads in that the company had not released any news that might be construed as responsible for the rise. A little digging on MSFT's new Web Events page today may hold the answer. As reported yesterday in this space MSFT IE 5.0 includes a 'radio' button which connects users to a customizable page of content - Web Events webevents.msn.com. The page includes tabs for ZDTV, NPR, CNN, House of Blues and one called Music Choice that reads-" It's Here! Commercial-free, professionally programmed music, 24 hours a day! To listen, select a speed (28.8k or56k) for one of the following channels and enjoy: alternative rock -New Releases- 80's -R&B Hits"
But what is of real interest is the note at the bottom of the page
"Streaming hosted by Intervu" musicchoicelive.com
----------------
INTERVU Inc. (Nasdaq:ITVU), the leading service provider for Internet
video delivery solutions, today announced a broadcasting service that
allows users to distribute live and on-demand audio and video
presentations with synchronized Microsoft(R) (Nasdaq:MSFT) PowerPoint(R) slides to select audiences - from one to thousands of simultaneous viewers - instantly via the Internet over INTERVU's unique distributed and fully automated network.
Called INTERVU Presents, this broadcasting service will allow Microsoft Office 97 and 2000 users to schedule and broadcast presentations any time of the day or night with its fully automated registration process. INTERVU Presents offers a highly cost-effective solution for business meetings, training sessions, corporate communications, tradeshows, press conferences, earnings announcements, and distance learning, by allowing companies and educational institutions to avoid travel costs and increase employee productivity due to less traveling.
"Customers will benefit from using PowerPoint 2000 with INTERVU to
deliver high-quality Internet video- and audio-enhanced presentations," said John Duncan, product manager for Microsoft Office, Microsoft Corp. "Users of PowerPoint 2000 will be able to use INTERVU Presents' broadcasting service to set up, schedule and integrate audio and video presentations live over the Internet."
Future versions of INTERVU Presents will include optional increased
security features in addition to stand-alone audio and video steaming
functionality, extending the automated reach of the INTERVU service to
all Internet users.
"INTERVU Presents offers users the ability to broadcast highly scalable presentations over the Internet using the most advanced video delivery network available," said Harry Gruber, CEO of INTERVU. "This is going to revolutionize communications by empowering presenters to create and deliver more impactful, cost-effective and compelling presentations. Customers will now have at their desktops a convenient and easy way to audibly and visually communicate to their widely dispersed colleagues."
--------------------------
It was a scene straight out of the film "Wag the Dog."
We were talking to Harry Gruber, CEO of InterVu, when suddenly he blurts out, "CNN just asked us to deliver the war." War? What war, Harry? "The war, the war with Iraq, you know." Uuuuh, last we heard the war was over. Saddam Hussein caved. No war, no broadcast. "Well, you know, if there is a war." So goes InterVu's business right now. Big customer, big potential, but it just hasn't happened yet. All this may soon change.
Let's back up. Phone calls to three different Internet analysts brought the same response. "InterVu? Never heard of it." Little do they know InterVu has the potential to make RealNetworks look like a penny stock.
Feeding the pipe
Solano Beach, California-based InterVu (ITVU) is not, we repeat, not, a competitor of RealNetworks. In fact, depending on who you talk to, it may have no competition at all. Unlike RealNetworks, which provides
do-it-yourself tools for anyone who needs to encode and deliver
multimedia over the Internet, InterVu is a full-service video shop.
(RealNetworks made a move in this direction, however, when it announced its RealNetwork joint venture with MCI last August.) It provides all the hardware and infrastructure necessary to deliver video encoding, video on demand, and live broadcasts, as well as a proprietary video ad banner technology, V-Banner. Because its video servers are networked across nine backbones, InterVu claims it can deliver higher performance at lower costs.
This system, which InterVu feels is patentable, has some very attractive qualities, not the least of which allows Web sites and Internet advertisers to add real-time video to their sites and banners without having to invest in any of the infrastructure to make that happen. (According to InterVu, adding video to an ad banner can enhance clickthrough by up to 300 percent.)
According to Bill Relyea, senior vice president with Josephthal and Co., one of the underwriters of InterVu's initial public offering, the
company "is the only one with this type of technology, which is why it
has attracted the interest of content providers like NBC and advertisers like Budweiser. It helps solves the problems of speed, scale and reach." But what about bandwidth and the introduction of cable modems and DSL technology? Won't that finally solve the problem of providing video on the web? According to Mr. Relyea, "you still have the problem of how many hops it takes to get it to the pipeline, so @Home is not the ultimate answer. Even if you have a great 'last mile', you still need this service to enhance delivery to it."
Commercial interest
InterVu's business can basically be split in two: advertising and
content delivery, with advertising initially providing the largest
portion of revenues. InterVu's customer list reads like an ad agency's
wet dream: Intel, United Airlines, Budweiser, Volvo, Hewlett Packard,
Yahoo, Sony, Major League Baseball, Turner Classic Movies, and even
Court TV.
On the advertising side, InterVu has formed a joint venture called
TrueVue with MatchLogic, a company now owned by Web directory Excite.
Whenever a customer needs "rich media" and a way of delivering it
faster, they can go to TrueVue, get video with their banners, and,
because they are charged on a CPM (cost per thousand viewers) basis, the advertisers can still walk away happy because they don't pay unless someone looks at the ad. "The MatchLogic deal is great," says IPO guru Francis Gaskins of Gaskins & Co.. "It's not what they went public on but it adds to the story. [Advertising revenue] is where the most visible growth is for InterVu."
For content delivery, InterVu has inked a deal with NBC to deliver its
entertainment video and audio content on NBC's Web sites, and large
outfits like CNN and Disney may be choosing to outsource their video
delivery in the future, war or no. Of course, all Mr. Gruber would say
is, "from what I can tell, it would make more sense for places like
Disney and CNN to outsource the video delivery side rather than spend
money on the servers and the engineers to run them." So can we count on a deal from those companies in the future? "No comment."
------------------------
INTERVU Inc. (Nasdaq:ITVU), the leading service provider for Internet
video delivery solutions, today announced a broadcasting service that
allows users to distribute live and on-demand audio and video
presentations with synchronized Microsoft(R) (Nasdaq:MSFT) PowerPoint(R) slides to select audiences - from one to thousands of simultaneous viewers - instantly via the Internet over INTERVU's unique distributed and fully automated network.
Called INTERVU Presents, this broadcasting service will allow Microsoft Office 97 and 2000 users to schedule and broadcast presentations any time of the day or night with its fully automated registration process. INTERVU Presents offers a highly cost-effective solution for business meetings, training sessions, corporate communications, tradeshows, press conferences, earnings announcements, and distance learning, by allowing companies and educational institutions to avoid travel costs and increase employee productivity due to less traveling.
"Customers will benefit from using PowerPoint 2000 with INTERVU to
deliver high-quality Internet video- and audio-enhanced presentations," said John Duncan, product manager for Microsoft Office, Microsoft Corp. "Users of PowerPoint 2000 will be able to use INTERVU Presents' broadcasting service to set up, schedule and integrate audio and video presentations live over the Internet."
Future versions of INTERVU Presents will include optional increased
security features in addition to stand-alone audio and video steaming
functionality, extending the automated reach of the INTERVU service to
all Internet users.
"INTERVU Presents offers users the ability to broadcast highly scalable presentations over the Internet using the most advanced video delivery network available," said Harry Gruber, CEO of INTERVU. "This is going to revolutionize communications by empowering presenters to create and deliver more impactful, cost-effective and compelling presentations. Customers will now have at their desktops a convenient and easy way to audibly and visually communicate to their widely dispersed colleagues."
A demonstration of INTERVU Presents can be viewed at the following Web
site: www.intervu.net/presents/demo/. In order to view this
demonstration, viewers will need to have the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser and Microsoft Windows Media Player downloaded.
---------------
CNN.com and INTERVU Expand Streaming Video Relationship
Business Wire - March 10, 1999 08:16
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 10, 1999--CNN.com, the world's leader in online news and information, and INTERVU Inc. (Nasdaq:ITVU), the leading service provider for Internet video delivery solutions, today announced an expanded agreement for INTERVU to continue to provide
streaming video services for CNN.com's live news coverage.
As part of this agreement, INTERVU will continue to act as CNN.com's
provider for all live Internet video broadcast services and INTERVU
banners will appear on CNN.com/videoselect and in CNN's live video
pop-up windows.
In the past year, INTERVU has successfully delivered to CNN.com live
online video of such high profile news stories as Clinton's grand jury
testimony, Operation Desert Fox, Michael Jordan's retirement press
conference, and the Senate impeachment trial of President Clinton.
INTERVU managed the delivery of CNN.com's live video content during
those exceptionally high-traffic times with its distributed network
infrastructure.
"We are pleased to continue and extend our relationship with INTERVU due to its continuous dedication, reliability, and overall success in
delivering CNN.com's live online video footage over the last year," said Monty Mullig, vice president, CNN Internet Technologies. "Over the last year we have seen a growing number of people going online to view CNN's breaking news video coverage, especially during the work day, and INTERVU has helped CNN.com handle the volume of users seamlessly."
"Streaming media on the Internet has changed the way people receive and process their news," said Harry Gruber, CEO of INTERVU. "People today are much more aware and sensitive to the news in their area and in the world because of the opportunity the Internet offers to watch it whenever and wherever they want. We provide CNN.com, the leading Web site for audio and video news, with the confidence to deliver
mission-critical breaking news stories to its online audience with
unmatched reliability and the highest quality available today on the
Internet."
About CNN.com
CNN Interactive is responsible for the award-winning news site CNN.com, as well as seven other Web sites and the distribution of CNN news content via other distribution platforms such as PageNet pagers, iMagic's PowerPhones and PointCast. In February 1999, CNN Interactive
launched CNN Mobile, the most comprehensive and advanced 24-hour global and pan-regional news and information service for GSM mobile phones, with nine charter operators in Europe and Asia. The CNN Web sites generate more traffic and attract more unduplicated Internet users than any other company's general news and information Web sites. The CNN Web sites averaged 105 million page impressions per week during January 1999 and served a total of 4.4 billion page impressions during 1998.
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intervu.net
intervu.net
partners@intervu.net Advertising
Technology
Emblaze
emblaze.com
GEOPublishing
emblaze.com
MatchLogic
matchlogic.com
Microsoft Corporation
microsoft.com
Netscape
netscape.com
RealNetworks
real.com
For more information contact
INTERVU at: partners@intervu.net
MatchLogic Inc.
matchlogic.com
Accipiter Inc.
accipiter.com
Narrowline
narrowline.com
NetGravity
netgravity.com
DoubleClick
doubleclick.net
ClickOver
adknowledge.com
Flycast
flycast.com
SOFTBANK
GEO Publishing
emblaze.com
------
Backbone
DIGEX
digex.net
Exodus
exodus.net
GTE/BBN/Genuity
genuity.com
GlobalCenter/Frontier
globalcenter.net
Globix Corp.
globix.com
IXL, Inc.
ixl.com
SuperNet
sni.net
ATT/TCG Cerfnet
cerfnet.net
UUNet
uunet.com |
