Signing of Archive Deals

Newsplayer Group PLC 9 October 2000 NEWSPLAYER GROUP PLC SIGNING OF SUBSTANTIAL ARCHIVES ON AN EXCLUSIVE BASIS Newsplayer Group PLC ('Newsplayer' or the 'Company'), a new media company, which has established an innovative video-on-demand product providing television and cinema newsreel footage which spans the 20th century, announces the signing of two exclusive archive deals; the Alison Mercer Collection and Stock Video of Boston (material from Columbia Sports News and Castlefilms). The two deals represent a catalogue of material, much of which, has not been seen since its original screening. The exclusive deals total over 1,000 hours of footage spanning the last century. Newsplayer has secured the rights to material from the Alison Mercer Collection, consisting of 1,400 video clips encoded at four different bandwidths and representing 280 hours of material on a 20 year exclusive Internet deal basis. Part of the archive comprises film-related material and biographies on icons of the cinema age. Included are 600 film trailers dating back to the 1930s, sourced from the largest film trailer archive in the UK, and featuring Kurt Douglas, Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe. Interviews with notable directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and screen tests with actors such as Audrey Hepburn are also included in the archive. The remaining material features US sporting footage dating from the 1920s. The Stock Video of Boston deal represents a further 800 hours of historical US-based encoded clips on a ten year exclusive licence on the Internet. The archive has been sourced from a selection of private collections and is of a sporting nature featuring Boxing, Golf, American football and Baseball. Newsplayer has managed to secure both archives for a total of £110,000, a fraction of their material worth, which is usually set at £5,000 for an hour of material. The material will be utilised in the B2B, B2C and B2E ('Business to Education') marketplaces. The combined total of 1080 hours of footage from these two contracts will substantially add to, and complement, Newsplayer's existing 900 hours of newsreel footage and allow Newsplayer to develop a boutique' of themed broadcast services on the Internet, particularly focusing on its US offering. Paul Duffen, Chief Executive of Newsplayer, commented: 'The deals constitute high-production historic footage with a material value of over £5 million which will substantially add to our existing archive of newsreel footage. The archives, accessible only through Newsplayer, will compound our innovative product.' For further information contact: Newsplayer Group PLC Paul Duffen / Barry Llewellyn, Tel: 020 7665 1812 Buchanan Communications Tim Thompson / Catherine Miles, Tel: 020 7466 5000 Notes to Editors Newsplayer Group PLC floated on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange ('AIM') in May 2000. Newsplayer users can browse the Newsplayer database which contains video material from 1896 to the present day and can stream any of the 14,000 video clips on request. Newsplayer's agreement with ITN gives it access to ITN's output on ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, together with the entire Reuters television archive and Paramount, Gaumont, British Empire News, Visnews and French Pathi newsreels (the 'ITN Archive'). Newplayer has strategic alliances with major media and technology partners including Microsoft, Yahoo! Europe and Hollinger International Inc.
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