Foxsports.Com Exclusive Provider For New Altavista Live! Sports Channel - Company Business and Marketing

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, Jan 31, 2000

Popular search portal AltaVista FOXSports.com have reached a deal for FOXSports.com to be the exclusive content provider for the AltaVista Live! Sports Channel. The new co-branded sports channel is already up and running at sports.altavista.com, featuring sports news and information, including up-to-the-minute scores and stats, schedules and exclusive reports in what the two firms call a typical "in-your-face" FOX Sports style.

As part of a multi-year agreement, AltaVista will promote the new sports channel throughout its network of services including placement of co-branded FOXSports.com promotions on the AltaVista Live! homepage at live.av.com. FOXSports.com, a division of News Corp.'s News Digital Media, will offer AltaVista users in-depth sports coverage with direct access to FOXSports.com. In December, more than 47 million unique users worldwide visited AltaVista, owned by CMGI Inc.

"This relationship offers FOXSports.com exclusive access to AltaVista's extensive audience and consumer reach," says Jon Richmond, president of News Digital Media. "The agreement represents News Digital's expanding commitment not only to the sports sector, but also to the direct marketing and commerce category, in general."

"By joining forces with FOXSports.com, one of world's premier sports resources, the AltaVista Live! Sports Channel becomes a force to be reckoned with in one of the Web's most popular content categories," adds Ross Levinsohn, vice president and general manager of new media for AltaVista. "This relationship embodies AltaVista's mission to bring an unparalleled breadth and depth of real-time content to the millions of AltaVista users."

Key features of the new channel include:

* Views and commentary from FOX Sports personalities including John Madden, Keith Olbermann, Tim McCarver and others;

* Headlines and feature stores from FOXSports.com's expansive coverage of the sports world including: Basketball, Football, Golf, Hockey, Motor Sports, Soccer, Tennis and additional coverage of international sporting events;

* Regional FOX Sports coverage from 20 US markets with news and highlights of professional and college teams;

* Real-time play-by-play tracking of games.