Microsoft Windows 98 to Ship With WavePhore’s WaveTop Consumer Data Broadcast Service

REDMOND, Wash., and PHOENIX, Ariz., June 25, 1998 — Microsoft Corp. and WavePhore Inc. today announced the inclusion of WaveTop, WavePhore’s innovative data broadcast solution for home PC users, in the Microsoft® Windows® 98 operating system. WaveTop will allow users of Windows 98 with TV tuner-enabled PCs to tap into a rich assortment of multimedia content at no charge and without the delays of the Internet or the annoyance of tying up phone lines.

WaveTop’s advertising-supported broadcast service now reaches the top 100 markets, representing over 85 percent of all U.S. households, offering news, investment advice and information, children’s programming, weather, consumer reports, free software downloads and much more, all supplied by the Web’s leading content providers.

“WavePhore’s WaveTop is an exciting example of how consumers can take advantage of the broadcast architecture support in Windows 98 to access multimedia content in a more cost-effective way,”
said Rob Bennett, group product manager, Windows platform, Microsoft Corp.

“We believe Windows 98 is a watershed event in bringing data broadcasting to home PCs and will be a catalyst for speeding up the penetration of TV tuners in PCs,”
said David E. Deeds, CEO, president and chairman of WavePhore.
“Now, for the first time, consumers can quickly and easily install a TV tuner card and WaveTop without worrying about compatibility issues.”

Inaugurated at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in April for Windows, WaveTop’s broadcast service already has the backing of dozens of the Internet’s most popular content providers, interactive advertisers and technology leaders. WaveTop’s software is bundled by eight of the leading manufacturers of TV receiver tuner cards for home PCs.

Rich Content

WaveTop content providers are among the world’s leading media companies, including Time Inc. New Media, which includes the online versions of People, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Money, Fortune and Sports Illustrated for Kids magazines and ZDNet News, online versions of ComputerLife, FamilyPC and Yahoo! Internet Life. Also providing content are USA Today, The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, CBS SportsLine, PBS ONLINE, Warner Bros. Online, Bloomberg LP, The Weather Channel, N2K’s Music Boulevard, barnesandnoble.com, Universal Press Syndicate: Comics, Women’s Wire and Prevention’s Healthy Ideas, ParentTime, Supermarkets Online, Astrology.Net, Dummies Daily, UltimateTV and NECX. The media partners’ content will create channels appealing to the whole family. WaveTop channels include NewsTop, the latest in news, sports, weather, and entertainment news; StockTop, regularly updated stock information and business news; KidsTop, fun, interactive educational content from brand-name, children-oriented programmers; TechTop, the latest technical news, downloads of free software, shareware and bug fixes; FamilyTop, the latest resource information for parents and working women; and FunTop, with the latest samples of games, music, comics and best-selling books.

Advertiser-Supported

WaveTop is supported by leading consumer-brand charter advertisers. They include companies such as Atlanta Internet Bank, EMI Records, Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp., 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.

How It 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 Inc. to broadcast data over the television signals of its 264 PBS member stations. Using a simple browser interface and a broadcast-ready PC with Windows 98 (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. Taking advantage of the flexible broadcast architecture in Windows 98, 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.

About WavePhore

WavePhore Inc. (Nasdaq
“WAVO”
) is the global leader in connecting people with compelling information in the office and at home. The corporation’s headquarters are in Phoenix, Ariz., and comprise three business units: WavePhore Networks, WavePhore Newscast and WavePhore WaveTop. WavePhore Networks, the industry leader in data broadcasting, provides flexible, high-speed data delivery for information publishers to more than 80,000 sites worldwide. WavePhore Newscast is the Web’s premier business infosource for enterprisewide use. WavePhore WaveTop* is the first free, advertising-supported, nationwide data broadcast

system to deliver multimedia content to broadcast-ready PCs in the home. Additional information on WavePhore is available via the Internet at http://www.wavephore.com , http://www.wavetop.net , http://www.wavo.com and http://www.newscast.com .

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or 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.

*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.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.

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