Online Sports Video Rights

28 Apr 2006 07:01

ukbetting PLC28 April 2006 28 April 2006 ukbetting plc sportal.com Acquires Online Sports Video Rights Following significant audience growth, leading sports video website sportal.comtoday announces a number of major online media rights acquisitions, specificallydesigned for its growing broadband audience. After seeing a massive increase in the volume of sports video clips served bythe site since December 2004*, sportal.com has further strengthened its positionin this fast-emerging marketplace by acquiring broadband video rights in thefollowing areas for 2006 and beyond: • PGA Championship Golf • The Open • The Wimbledon Championships • Rugby Super League • The Ryder Cup • World Boxing This new array of content complements sportal.com's existing daily video newspackages, soccer World Cup and fan-based content, produced for both the web andmobile networks. sportal.com is part of the group of websites that comprises TEAMtalk Media - agroup that as a whole currently streams more than 2 million sports video clipsper month. sportal.com's exciting new video content will also be syndicated and promotedacross the full breadth of sports sites within the wider TEAMtalk Media networkthat services approximately 8.5 million monthly users generating 350 millionmonthly page impressions. (*52,000% source: BT Media & BT Broadcast) David Annat, Managing Director of ukbetting plc commented: "The significant volumes of streaming media we're now delivering confirm to usthat online audiences are beginning to watch video over broadband in seriousnumbers. "This mirrors recent Ofcom data and highlights the changing patterns of mediaconsumption in the UK. Growth is being driven by the continued rollout of newbroadband connections, now up to 10 million in the UK, with an estimated 200million connections worldwide. We launched TEAMtalk TV last month, which has a full daily programme of news andfan-based content and now this further investment in sportal demonstrates ourstrategic intent in this high growth market ." -ends- For more information, contact: ukbetting plc 020 7766 6909Peter Dubens, Vice Chairman Financial Dynamics 020 7831 3113Edward Bridges / Juliet Clarke / Hannah Sloane About ukbetting plc: ukbetting plc (AIM: UKB.L) is the UK's leading online gaming and sports contentoperator. Listing on the Alternative Investment Market in August 2001,ukbetting has since pursued an active acquisitive strategy and now owns andoperates ten sports content sites (sportinglife.com, sportal.com,bettingzone.co.uk and TEAMtalk.com, www.rivals.net, www.football365.com,www.planetrugby.com, www.planetf1.com, www.golf365.com and www.cricket365.com),an odds comparison site (oddschecker.com) and three wagering sites(ukbetting.com, totalbet.com and goldbet.com). Through these sites it ispossible to find in-depth information, and place fixed-odds bets on a variety ofsports including horse racing, football, cricket, rugby, tennis, as well as playpoker, casino and skills based games. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange