MSNBC.com and MSN Sign Agreement With Weather.com to Provide Expanded Weather Coverage

REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 20, 2002 — Freak snowstorms, sharp temperature spikes and unexpected downpours need no longer catch online consumers by surprise following an alliance between MSNBC.com, a leader in breaking news and original journalism on the Internet; the MSN® network, the most popular online destination; and weather.com, the leading source of weather on the Web and the official site of The Weather Channel.

The alliance provides users of MSNBC.com and MSN in the United States with personalized, up-to-date weather information and statistics — and will soon offer weather alerts and forecasts that can be routed to various mobile devices and other communication services including email and instant messaging services.

“MSN and MSNBC.com are committed to bringing consumers the news, information and resources they need at any time of day or night. This includes weather forecasts that are as timely and personalized as possible,”
said Richard Bray, vice president for MSN at Microsoft Corp.
“weather.com’s first-rate weather coverage is a perfect match to keep our consumers updated on the weather news that impacts their lives.”

“We are very pleased to work with Microsoft,”
said Debora Wilson, president and chief executive officer for weather.com.
“This agreement to become the weather provider to MSNBC.com and MSN allows us to increase our reach and will expose even more Internet users to the reliable and timely weather content consumers trust and seek from The Weather Channel. We look forward to building on this new relationship to extend our weather information to consumers anytime, anywhere.”

Under the agreement, weather.com provides MSNBC.com and MSN with current conditions and five-day forecasts, along with links to additional weather information such as air quality and forecasts specifically for travel, golf, boating and beach, home and garden, skiing and more.

MSNBC.com has combined the new weather information with its local news to create a single home page for all local content and weather information for 80,000 locations worldwide, which users can personalize and access every time they log on. Local news on MSNBC.com’s affiliate network provides local coverage to 88 percent of U.S. households, including the Web sites of 94 local television stations, 40 print outlets and Associated Press and Reuters wire reports for 21 markets.

MSN consumers also can access weather information across the MSN network, including MSN City Guides, MSN Calendar and on My MSN. My MSN delivers customizable information providing the choice of single and multicity weather views so that consumers can personalize the up-to-the minute weather forecasts they receive or track weather in places where they plan to visit or where loved ones live.

Later this year, weather.com, MSN and MSNBC.com users will have the ability to sign up for MSN Alerts. Built on Microsoft® .NET technology, MSN Alerts is a free opt-in service where users sign up to receive alerts about specific, timely information including inclement weather and five-day forecasts. The MSN Alerts service puts consumers in control of how, where and when they want to be notified about important events. These alerts can be routed directly to MSN Messenger, Windows®
Messenger, MSN-enabled mobile devices, or e-mail, all based on the user’s preferences and online
“presence”
or status.

About MSNBC.com

MSNBC.com is a leader in breaking news and original journalism on the Internet. MSNBC.com delivers the best of NBC News, MSNBC Cable, CNBC, NBC Sports, MSN, and Newsweek. MSNBC is a 24-hour cable and Internet joint venture of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and NBC News (NYSE: GE.)

About MSN

MSN attracts more than 270 million unique users worldwide per month. Globally 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/ . MSN worldwide sites are located at http://www.msn.com/worldwide.ashx .

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 weather.com

weather.com, the Web site of The Weather Channel®
(TWC), is the world’s leading source of weather on the Web. Consistently, weather.com ranks among the top 20 of all Web sites, the top five news and information sites and the number 3 cable television-related Web sites (Nielsen//NetRatings). weather.com is also the leading provider of broadband and wireless weather products. The Weather Channel continues to expand its international reach online with the launch of language-specific sites for the United Kingdom (weather.co.uk), Germany (wetter123.com), France (meteo123.com), Latin America (weather.com/espanol) and Brazil (canaldotempo.com). For more information about weather.com visit http://www.weather.com/aboutus/marketing/press/internet .

Microsoft, MSN and Windows 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. 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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