Intertainer Launches First Widely Available Video-on-Demand Service With Thousands of Hit Movies, TV Shows, Music Videos and More

CULVER CITY, Calif. and REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 17, 2001 — Intertainer Inc., the entertainment-on-demand broadband service, and Microsoft Corp. today announced the immediate availability of Intertainer’s video-on-demand (VOD) subscription service in the nation’s top 35 broadband markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C. With a catalog that includes thousands of top-tier Hollywood films, TV shows, music videos and concerts, Intertainer is the first company to offer a widely available VOD service for broadband-connected PCs featuring premium content delivered with better-than-VHS quality.

Later this month, Intertainer will be promoted through co-branded Web pages on the MSN® network of Internet services, the most popular portal destination on the World Wide Web.

The broad launch of Intertainer’s service represents a milestone in the delivery of VOD to home viewers. Building on the experience of industry leaders Intertainer and Microsoft, the service brings together for the first time the critical components required for VOD to succeed — a vast library of top-tier content and hit movies, the highest quality audio and video and massive reach to millions of broadband-enabled households. Any time of the day or night, without leaving the comfort of their homes, subscribers can choose from a huge selection of movies like
“The Mexican”
with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts — with no driving, no titles ever out of stock, no worn-out tape copies and never any late fees.

“Video-on-demand is the future of personal entertainment, offering viewers unprecedented convenience, choice and control,”
said Jonathan Taplin, Intertainer CEO.
“With the industry-leading quality of Windows Media™ and the unparalleled reach of MSN, Intertainer is bringing America into that future with a pervasive, fun and easy-to-use entertainment service.”

“Intertainer has put all the pieces together to make video on demand work at last for home viewers,”
said Will Poole, vice president of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft.
“Intertainer’s outstanding library offers the kind of top-tier entertainment people have been waiting for, and the technology is here today to deliver a great viewing experience.”

Vast Library of Top Content

The Intertainer library features more than 70,000 hours of content, including films from major Hollywood studios and a variety of television and music programming from more than 70 premium content providers. Intertainer content partners include Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Dreamworks SKG, Artisan Entertainment, New Line Cinema, NBC, A & E Television Networks, Discovery Channel, EMI Music, ESPN, PBS, Warner Music Group and numerous others.

Content available now on the Intertainer service includes:

  • Major motion pictures including
    “The Mexican”
    (starring Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts),
    “Fifteen Minutes”
    (starring Robert DeNiro and Edward Burns),
    “Blow”
    (starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz)
    “Miss Congeniality”
    (starring Sandra Bullock and Benjamin Bratt) and
    “Sweet November”
    (starring Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves)

  • Broadcast television programming including the critically acclaimed Ken Burns
    “Baseball”
    documentary series, A & E’s
    “Biography”
    series, popular episodes of
    “Saturday Night Live”
    and a wide variety of cooking, travel, fitness, education and do-it-yourself programs

  • Music videos and concerts from artists such as Fatboy Slim, Nine Inch Nails, Missy Elliot, Moby, Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Madonna, Miles Davis, Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, Radiohead and many others

Windows Media Audio and Video Ensures Highest Quality and Security

Intertainer’s service is delivered using Microsoft’s high-quality Windows Media for the best viewing experience, and content is protected with Windows Media Digital Rights Management to give customers seamless access to their video selections while protecting the rights of content owners.

All video content available through the Intertainer service is encoded at 500 Kbps using Windows Media Video 8 to deliver a full-screen video experience. Intertainer content plays in an embedded Windows Media Player that offers full VCR functionality, allowing viewers to pause, rewind and fast-forward their video selections.

Massive Reach with MSN and Broadwing

Beginning Oct. 25, Intertainer will be prominently featured on MSN Entertainment, ensuring great visibility for the service. Visitors to MSN will be able to easily access Intertainer’s content through a co-branded Video on Demand page, located within the Movies section. Prominently featuring Intertainer, the co-branded page will provide MSN users the opportunity to view Intertainer content showcases as well as information on how to subscribe. Microsoft will also feature promotional Intertainer content on WindowsMedia.com, the Internet’s most popular guide to audio and video content.

Intertainer is working with network service providers such as Broadwing to provide users the highest quality of service. Broadwing’s intelligent, all-optical switched network, provides the capacity and performance essential to handling high-quality streaming media.

Pricing and Availability

Intertainer’s subscription service begins with FirstPass™
, which gives subscribers unlimited access to a select library of premium television, lifestyle and children’s programs, for only $7.99 per month. Programming is updated every week, giving viewers a constant flow of new selections. Once users sign up for FirstPass, full-length feature films can be purchased on a pay-per-view basis. New-release titles are $3.99, library titles are $2.99 and music videos are free.

Internet subscribers with broadband connection speeds of at least 580 Kbps who reside in the country’s top 35 broadband markets will be able to choose from the largest selection of premium on-demand entertainment programming and watch it instantly. Viewers can watch directly on a PC or on a television linked to a PC with an S-video cable or a wireless connection.

Intertainer will be available in the following cities: Atlanta; Baltimore; Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Hartford, Conn.; Houston; Indianapolis; Kansas City, Mo.; Los Angeles; Miami; Milwaukee; Minneapolis; Nashville, Tenn.; New York; Orlando, Fla.; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Pittsburgh; Portland, Ore.; Raleigh, N.C.; Sacramento, Calif.; Salt Lake City; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; St. Louis; Tampa, Fla. and Washington, D.C.

About Intertainer

Using its flexible, interoperable Digital Entertainment Service Platform™
, Intertainer (www.intertainer.tv) delivers the largest selection of movies, music videos, television and shopping on-demand instantly to your PC or TV. The service features content from unprecedented partner relationships including Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., DreamWorks SKG, New Line Cinema, A & E Networks, NBC, Discovery, ESPN, Pearson Television, Warner Music, EMI Music and many others. Enhanced TV functionality, interactive advertising, e-commerce opportunities and personalization features round out the Digital Entertainment Service Platform offering and the Intertainer experience. Strategic partners include Comcast, Intel, Microsoft, NBC, Qwest and Sony.

About Windows Media

Windows Media is the leading digital media platform, providing unmatched audio and video quality to consumers, content providers, solution providers, software developers and corporations. Windows Media offers the industry’s only integrated rights-management solution and the most scalable and reliable streaming technology tested by independent labs. Windows Media Technologies includes Windows Media Player for consumers, Windows Media Services for servers, Windows Media Tools for content creation, and the Windows Media Software Development Kit (SDK) for software developers. Windows Media Player, available in 26 languages, is the fastest-growing media player. More information about Windows Media can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/ .

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.

About MSN

MSN attracts more than 270 million unique users worldwide per month. Available in 34 markets and 18 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering Web services to consumers and digital marketing solutions to businesses worldwide. The most useful and innovative online service today, MSN brings consumers everything they need from the Web to make the most of their time online. MSN is located on the Web at http://www.msn.com/ .

Microsoft, MSN 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 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. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.asp .

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