NEW YORK and REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 3, 1996 — With the completion of the NFL regular season, pro football fans are getting ready for the playoffs and the ultimate season finale: Super Bowl XXX (Jan. 28, 1996, Tempe, Ariz.). For the first time, the NFL, in conjunction with NBC Sports and Microsoft Corp., will bring all of the excitement and activities surrounding the biggest one-day sports event to cyberspace with the launch of a new Web site – http://superbowl.com.
Throughout the next month, superbowl.com will provide fans worldwide with previews and up-to-the-minute news on all the playoff games; team and game analysis from NBC Sports talent; information on past Super Bowls, including video and audio clips of the game’s most memorable moments; as well as fan message boards, chat areas and a Super Bowl cybershop.
Scheduled to begin Jan. 18, once the AFC and NFC championship teams are determined, superbowl.com will report live from Tempe on the two teams playing in Super Bowl XXX and the events surrounding the game. Superbowl.com will provide background information on the teams plus continuous updates and coverage of the events of the week prior to the Super Bowl. Fans will be able to chat with NFL stars and NBC Sports talent, and get all the latest news and photos from events and news conferences in Tempe. During the Super Bowl game, superbowl.com will feature online commentary and analysis from NFL and NBC experts, live play-by-play and statistics.
Microsoft is the key technology partner and has been instrumental in the creation and management of superbowl.com. The site combines state-of-the-art technologies such as interactive chats and multimedia images and sound, to give users a highly-interactive experience. While the Web site is accessible to any user connected to the Internet, users of the new Microsoft®
Internet Explorer version 2.0 will have exclusive access to additional features such as inline sound and inline video. The site resides on the Microsoft Internet Information Server, a Web server that runs on the Windows NT
™
operating system, to help ensure reliability, speed of access and ease of use.
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Super Bowl, the site’s home page will feature a different Super Bowl multimedia flashback each day. The site also will feature an area where fans will have a unique opportunity to contribute to the content of the television special
“Behind the Scenes: Super Bowl XXX,”
to be telecast by NBC on Saturday, Jan. 27 (5-6 p.m.). Users of superbowl.com will be able to suggest features for inclusion in the special.
“With the help of NBC and Microsoft, we are bringing the excitement of the NFL playoffs and one of the world’s premier sporting events to cyberspace for the first time, providing fans worldwide with an upclose look at this special anniversary of the Super Bowl,”
said Ann Kirschner, vice president of programming and media development for NFL Enterprises.
“If you can’t actually be there in Tempe, superbowl.com is the next best thing for NFL fans in January.”
“Superbowl.com is one of the most dynamic sites on the Web,”
said Mike Conte, group manager in the personal systems division at Microsoft.
“We think it really shows off our innovative Internet technologies such as sound, video and graphics. It offers users, particularly those using Internet Explorer, an advanced interactive experience.”
“We are excited about this innovative opportunity to expand our relationship with the NFL and Microsoft,”
said Jon Miller, senior vice president, NBC Sports programming.
“It is hard to believe that the Super Bowl, the biggest annual sports event, could get even bigger. But NBC, the NFL and Microsoft are making that happen.”
Superbowl.com was created by NFL Enterprises, NBC Sports Online and their technology partner Microsoft. The site will reside at http://superbowl.com on the Microsoft Internet Information Server.
Microsoft and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
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