IBM To Create Digital Asset Management Solution For Paramount Domestic Television's ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT

Business Wire, April 10, 2000

Business/Entertainment Editors

NAB2000

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 10, 2000

New Architecture to Enhance ET's Tape Archive and Production Process

for Creating, Storing and Retrieving Digital Media

IBM today announced that it is working with Paramount Domestic Television's ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT (ET), the No. 1 entertainment news magazine show, to create a comprehensive digital asset management solution designed to enhance the daily production process of the show. IBM plans to assist ET in transferring its current analog tape archive to a fully digitized collection that includes descriptive information about the video footage, enabling easy search and retrieval capabilities.

IBM's solution is designed to digitize, catalog, store and retrieve ET's video archive of nearly 20 years of footage and more than 100,000 hours in addition to new hours added each week. The solution would provide ET with the ability to quickly search and query its massive archive of digitized file footage. Show producers would then receive low-resolution files matching their search for browsing purposes; they can subsequently retrieve high-resolution files for final editing and broadcast.

Part of IBM's solution for ET is expected to include yet-to-be-announced tape automation based on Linear Tape Open (LTO) technology. Using an ultrascalable tape library incorporating IBM LTO Ultrium drives, ET will be able to digitally store and retrieve all of its film archive much faster, more efficiently and less expensively. LTO technology offers good investment protection for the media industry's growing requirements in digitized data storage.

"The digital media transformation is critical for media and entertainment companies to take advantage of their intellectual property and continue to provide value to customers, especially in the fast-paced and converging network-driven economy," said Steve Canepa, vice president, marketing and strategy, IBM Global Media and Entertainment Industry. "IBM's work with Paramount Television and ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT represents a prime example of e-business in the media industry, capitalizing on the efficiencies and new capabilities that can be gained by an analog to digital transformation. We look forward to helping ET enhance its news delivery process, and ultimately, value to viewers."

"The time pressures of a daily television show fueled by the viewers' appetite and demand for timely entertainment news have dictated our need for the best digital archival and production technology," said Robert Kisor, vice president, engineering and technical services, Paramount Pictures. "We are confident that IBM's digital asset management expertise will give ET the right technical foundation for preserving and extending the value of our assets. We look forward to exploring opportunities for expanding Paramount Pictures' digital media strategy beyond ET."

Once digitized and catalogued, ET's analog tape video archive will become an intelligent, non-degradable library of digital assets that can be easily repurposed for other formats such as television specials, Web site production, or even sold to other broadcast entities.

IBM's solution combines hardware and software components including IBM's recently announced Content Manager, as well as IBM NetFinity, RS/6000, and new LTO ultrascalable tape library technology. The solution will also include the software components of Virage VideoLogger and Audiologger and the IBM Content Manager as part of the process to read and encode video tapes. IBM also plans to customize the search and retrieval capabilities of Content Manager for ET's application and provide unifying code to streamline the overall production process.

About Content Manager

IBM Content Manager is an integrated software solution designed for the creation, capture, storage, management and distribution of digital content -- including images, computer generated output, business documents and rich media. IBM Content Manager is a first-of-its-kind offering built to support both media asset management and traditional integrated document management in one solution.

About IBM

IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM is helping media and entertainment companies worldwide take advantage of the business opportunities made possible by digital technology. IBM offers a comprehensive portfolio of solutions, networking and service offerings that is transforming the traditional creative and business processes of media and entertainment companies and positioning them to leverage their intellectual assets into new commercial opportunities. For more information on IBM strategy for the media and entertainment industry, contact www.ibm.com/solutions/media.> About ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT

Entering its unprecedented 20th season in the fall, ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT has ranked as the No. 1 first-run magazine strip among women and men 18-49 and 25-54 for the past 38 sweep periods. Produced and distributed by Paramount Domestic Television, ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT is taped in Hollywood. Linda Bell Blue is executive producer. Mary Hart is anchor; Bob Goen is anchor. Julie Moran is primary/substitute anchor/weekend anchor/senior correspondent. Jann Carl is a weekend anchor/substitute anchor/correspondent. Mark Steins is weekend anchor. Leonard Maltin is correspondent/film historian.