BBC Audiobooks Ltd. Joins the Audible Internet Audio Service

Business Wire, Feb 14, 2005

WAYNE, N.J. -- Classic and Contemporary BBC Spoken Audio Now at Audible.com for Download and Mobile Listening on MP3 Players and Personal Digital Assistants in the U.S., U.K., and Worldwide

Audible Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBL), the leading provider of digitally delivered spoken word audio, and BBC Audiobooks Ltd., the leading producer of spoken word audio in the UK, today announced that hundreds of titles of popular and classic BBC spoken word products are coming to audible.com(R), many of them available on an exclusive basis. Visitors to audible.com can register, download, and listen to BBC Audiobooks titles on any AudibleReady(R) digital audio player or personal digital assistant. The addition of the BBC Audiobooks titles will increase Audible's current 70,000 hours of programming by thousands of hours of world class programming, all of which may be purchased at audible.com. Audio titles from BBC Audiobooks will also be available at Audible's distribution partners, including the Apple iTunes Music Stores and Amazon.

BBC Audiobooks brings to Audible hundreds of unabridged audiobooks and the BBC titles derived originally from BBC broadcast programs - including new front list BBC titles every month. This represents tens of thousands of hours of new programming that can be seamlessly delivered to listeners' computers over the Internet. Audio titles are sent directly to listeners' home or work computers, for playback on more than 120 portable audio players that match all listeners' lifestyles.

More than 500 hours of the best of BBC Audiobooks are available today at the audible.com Web site, with hundreds of titles coming soon. BBC Audiobooks' unabridged titles include works by world-class authors, including Alan Bennett, Alistair Cooke, J. M. Coetzee, Patricia Cornwell, Len Deighton, Nick Hornby, John Le Carre, P.D. James, Dick Francis, Graham Greene, Lynda La Plante, John Mortimer, Philip Pullman, Ruth Rendell, Jacqueline Wilson, P.G. Wodehouse, and many more. Programs derived from BBC broadcast material include Little Britain -- The Complete Radio Collection; The League of Gentlemen; A History of Britain; Blackadder; Fawlty Towers; Doctor Who; Round the Horne; The Goon Show; Hancock's Half Hour; and many more.

"Simply stated, BBC Audiobooks have set the standard for excellence in spoken word programming," said Brian Fielding, Executive Vice President, Programming, Audible, Inc. "We constantly seek the very best spoken word audio to add to our selection and view the addition of BBC Audiobooks' incomparable catalogue as a watershed event for Audible's digital audio customers.

Stephen Davies, Business Development Director for BBC Audiobooks, commented, "We believe that our customers will really appreciate the benefits of audiobook downloads in terms of their convenience of use and value for money, and we are delighted to be working with Audible to bring so many of our titles to the market."

About Audible.com:

Audible.com(R), recently named the best consumer Web service by CNet.com, and one of the "Best of Today's Web" by PC World, features daily audio editions of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times -- available on a subscription basis in time for the morning drive to work each day -- as well as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Scientific American, and Fast Company. The site offers a powerful collection of audiobook best sellers and classics by authors such as Tom Clancy, Stephen King, John Grisham, Janet Evanovich, James Patterson, the Dalai Lama, David McCullough, Stephen Hawking, William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, and Jane Austen. There are also speeches, lectures, and on-demand radio programs including Marketplace, All Things Considered, Car Talk, Fresh Air, and This American Life, and original shows such as RobinWilliams@audible.com. All of the programs at audible.com are available for computer-based playback, burning to audio CD, and on-the-go listening using numerous AudibleReady(R) portable digital audio players offered by leading consumer electronics and computer manufacturers.

About Audible, Inc.:

Audible(R) (www.audible.com(R)) is the Internet's leading premium spoken audio source. Content from Audible is downloaded and played back on personal computers, CDs, or AudibleReady(R) computer-based mobile devices. Audible has 70,000 hours of audio programs from more than 185 content partners that include leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers. Audible.com is Amazon.com's and the Apple iTunes Music Store's pre-eminent provider of spoken word products for downloading or streaming via the Web. Additionally, the Company is strategically aligned with Random House, Inc. in the first-ever imprint to produce spoken word content specifically suited for digital distribution, Random House Audible. Among the Company's key business relationships are Apple Corp., Bertelsmann AG, Creative Labs, Holtzbrinck Networxs, Hewlett-Packard Company, Microsoft Corporation, palmOne, Inc., PhatNoise Inc., RealNetworks, Inc., Rio Audio, Roxio, Inc., Sony Electronics, Texas Instruments Inc., and VoiceAge Corporation.