Windows Media Broadband Jumpstart Initiative Passes 100-Member Milestone

ORLANDO, Fla., May 24, 2000 — Today at the ISPCON Spring 2000 trade show in Orlando, Will Poole, vice president of the Digital Media Division at Microsoft Corp., announced that 26 content providers have joined the Windows Media™
Broadband Jumpstart initiative, bringing the total number of initiative members to more than 100. Jumpstart members also reported strong growth in the demand for Windows Media content optimized for broadband. The Jumpstart initiative is an end-to-end, industrywide effort to accelerate the consumer adoption of broadband technology, increase the availability of broadband content and improve broadband business models.

“Broadband is already changing the way people use their computers for entertainment, and the members of the Jumpstart initiative are leading the charge,”
said Poole.
“Working together on the common goal of moving the industry as a whole forward, Jumpstart members are bringing more great content to the Web more reliably than ever before.”

In just eight months, the Microsoft® Windows Media Jumpstart initiative has raised awareness of high-speed Internet access and helped remove technological obstacles to delivering the high-quality digital audio and video experience made possible by broadband. By bringing together companies from across the digital media industry, including content providers, encoding companies, content distribution networks and broadband access providers, the initiative makes possible high-traffic Internet streaming events such as the recent webcast of the Kingdome implosion, for which 56 percent of streams were delivered at 128Kbps or faster. As customer demand grows for high-quality broadband content, the Jumpstart initiative fosters the industry cooperation necessary to deliver broadband content reliably and at lower cost.

“Broadband demand is just soaring,”
said Tom Gillis, vice president of marketing at iBEAM Broadcasting Corp., an Internet broadcast network and a founding Jumpstart member.
“We saw the promise in the Broadband Jumpstart initiative, and now we’re watching it deliver. With the help of Windows Media, the consumer experience has improved and there’s more content to choose from.”

Content Compels Growth

New content providers include 88HIPHOP.COM, AtomicPop.com, BMG Music, BreakTV.com, Centerseat.com, ChoiceRadio.com, CineMamaniaNetwork.com, DiscJockey.Com Inc., EarthAtNiteTV.com, GolfSpan.com Inc., Hitplay Media Inc., How To Web TV, Maxbaseball.com, Medium4Music.com, NicheTV.com, Oasistv.com, OBCTV.COM, Rascalscomedyclub.com, Spikeradio.com, sports3.com, StreamingUSA.com, VBIC, WarpRadio.com Inc., WebFN, wildbrain.com Inc. and ZoieFilms.com. They join the 47 providers already participating in the Jumpstart initiative. Members are listed in the Broadband Guide on WindowsMedia.com ( http://WindowsMedia.com/ ), the most comprehensive and popular Web site for high-quality Windows Media-formatted audio and video content.

Jumpstart members report dramatic increases in consumer demand for broadband content in recent months, fueled in large part by exposure on the WindowsMedia.com Broadband Guide.

“What Microsoft has done is create a broadband ‘main street’ where surfers can window-shop for the best streaming video on the Internet,”
said Tony Nassour, creative director, BreakTV.com.
“We have seen substantial increases in traffic since the program started – BreakTV’s page views are now in the millions.”

Centerseat Inc.’s Centerseat.com, which offers live events and genre programming over the Internet, has seen a 40 percent increase in demand for broadband content since joining the Jumpstart initiative in March. An exclusive broadband interview with John Travolta recently drew more than 180,000 requests in a single day, and a
“Celebrity Central”
program featuring Victoria’s Secret model Heidi Klum generated more than 196,000 requests in a single day.

Victoria Weston, founder of recent Jumpstart member ZoieFilms.com, reports similar eye-catching results for two film shorts recently featured in the WindowsMedia.com Broadband Guide: a piece on Johnny Cash drew more than 157,000 viewers; and an animated short called
“The Dentist”
drew more than 170,000 viewers.
“Microsoft has created an ideal marriage between its new Windows Media Player 7 software and the media guide showcasing original, high-quality programs,”
Weston said.

Availability and Participation

More information on the Windows Media Broadband Jumpstart initiative, including information on joining, is available at http://msdnisv.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/bbjump.asp .

About Windows Media

Windows Media, the leading digital media platform, provides consumers, content providers, solution providers, software developers and corporations with unmatched audio and video quality. Windows Media Technologies, which includes Windows Media Player, Windows Media Services, Windows Media Tools and the Windows Media Software Development Kit

(SDK), are available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/ . The Windows Media Player is the fastest growing digital media player and is available in 24 languages. To date, there are over 100 million licensed copies of the Windows Media Player, growing by more than one every second.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software – any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft and Windows Media are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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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