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AOL & Broadband Sports Announce Expanded Strategic Relationship April 03, 2000
New, Multi-Year, Multi-Million-Dollar Agreement Offers AOL Members and Sports Fans Broadband Sports' In-Depth and Original Information on Favorite Sports Teams and Star Athletes DULLES, VA and LOS ANGELES, April 3, 2000-America Online (NYSE: AOL) , the world's leading interactive services company, and Broadband Sports, a leading sports media company that provides original content and commerce to leading Internet portals and sport sites, today announced an expansion of their strategic partnership with two new agreements that will provide Broadband Sports' unique sports content and athlete opportunities to sports fans on several key AOL brands. These strategic agreements broaden the companies' existing relationship, in place since 1996. Under the new three year, multi-million dollar agreements, Broadband Sports, through its divisions AthletesDirect, SportsWritersDirect and RotoNewsDirect, will become the premier team and athlete content provider across several AOL brands, producing all team-specific and athlete-specific content offerings. In addition, Broadband Sports will integrate content links and receive promotion from within the AOL Scoreboards, the most highly trafficked area within the AOL Sports Channel. AthletesDirect will also be an anchor tenant in AOL's Sports Channel, and have premier placement on AOL.COM, CompuServe, and ICQ. The companies' expanded relationship will also give AOL's international users access to AthletesDirect's first person journals, online chats, fan clubs and official athlete stores. With its exposure across AOL International and through ICQ's large international audience, Broadband Sports will be able to deliver its rich sports programming to a new global audience, and AthletesDirect will create a unique online area dedicated to star athletes for AOL international properties, including AOL Australia, AOL Brazil, AOL Canada, and AOL UK. The co-branded destinations will include many new features that will enhance the experience for the sports-oriented online community. AOL and CompuServe members and visitors to AOL's Web-based brands will have easy, convenient access to features including: - Sports Team Content: Convenient access to information on sports teams from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, college football, and college basketball. This area will include customized Web pages about the various teams, including stats and additional dynamic content, along with a shop with sports apparel and fan wear. - Star Athletes Content: Updated information on national and world famous sports stars, including Steve Young, Ken Griffey Jr., and Troy Aikman. This includes details on the athletes' career and personal histories along with photo galleries, personal journals, and additional content. - Chats and Live Events with Star Athletes: An exclusive opportunity for AOL members to chat "live" with some of the world's most talented and popular sports heroes of today, from Mia Hamm to Kobe Bryant. - Kids' Programming: Young fans can access the updated journals of their favorite athletic stars, explore the customized AthletesDirect Sports Station, and for certain athletes, fans will find a one-stop shop for all the latest sports news. - Extreme Sports Content: AthletesDirect will create an Extreme Sports content area dedicated to fans of extreme sports including skateboarding, snowboarding, rock climbing, and surfing which will be feature on multiple AOL brands. Bios of extreme sports stars, schedule of extreme sporting events nationwide, and more. - SportsWriterDirect: A one-stop shop for the latest in regional, college and statewide sports will be available at the touch of a button, giving members access to scores, articles and updates by regional sportswriters, including sports columns and features exclusive to AOL. More than 300 reporters covering more than 500 teams nationwide work to keep sports fans informed of the latest in local athletics through Broadband Sports' SportswritersDirect division. Jonathan Sacks, Senior Vice President and General Manager, AOL Interactive Services, said: "With its one-of-a-kind sports content, including sports superstar Web sites and customized features, AOL's expanded relationship with Broadband Sports is perfect for the millions of AOL members who are sports fans. We are excited to make finding sports star chats, photos, and details on favorite sports teams and players even easier; and we are especially excited to offer AOL members and users of the AOL brands Broadband Sports' original sports content." "Expanding our relationship with AOL is a watershed event in enabling us to continue to extend the distribution of Broadband Sports as well as our flagship AthletesDirect and SportsWritersDirect brands," said Richard Nanula, CEO of Broadband Sports. "By securing a significant presence on the AOL Sports Channel as well as across other key AOL platforms, we will ensure our continued ability to reach one of the largest and most attractive sports audiences on the Web. We believe these new agreements will greatly increase the visibility of Broadband Sports media properties and we are thrilled to be providing access to Broadband Sports' wide range of original sports programming and products to the world's largest online sports audience."
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