Hearst-Argyle joins NBBC network

Cory Bergman January 8th, 2007

Hearst-Argyle has finalized a deal to add its NBC affiliates to the National Broadband Company (NBBC), the online video network that’s jointly owned by NBC Universal and participating NBC affiliates. Details…

PRESS RELEASE — Hearst-Argyle Television, today announced that it has
finalized an agreement with the National Broadband Company (”nbbc”) under
which Hearst-Argyle’s NBC affiliated TV stations and NBC Universal will jointly
share and monetize their video content.

The plans for nbbc — an advertising-supported service jointly owned by
NBC Universal and NBC television affiliates to aggregate, syndicate and
distribute video and other digital content sourced from the NBC stations,
NBC Universal cable networks and those of partner affiliate stations and
other content partners — were first announced in April 2006 jointly by NBC
Universal officials and Terry Mackin, Hearst-Argyle Executive Vice
President and head of the company’s Digital Media Group, who at the time
also served as Chair of the NBC Affiliates Board. nbbc was officially
launched in September 2006 with content from the NBC Universal companies
and various third-party content providers. nbbc marks the second equity
joint venture in the digital space, after Weather Plus, between NBC and its
television affiliates.

“We see significant growth potential for broadband-based use by
consumers and professionals of high-quality local video,” Mackin said. “By
partnering with our colleagues at NBC Universal in this video syndication
marketplace, we expect to increase widely the distribution of our local
content. nbbc can broaden our access to a larger retail and commercial
audience and offers us greater potential for content-licensing revenue.”

Brian Buchwald, nbbc general manager, added, “Terry has been an
indispensable partner and collaborator in launching nbbc, and we are
thrilled that the Hearst-Argyle content and distribution are now part of
our diverse marketplace.”

Under the agreement, access to nbbc and its content will be available
from the various local NBC-affiliated Hearst-Argyle station web sites, and
vice- versa, on a non-exclusive basis.

The sites of seven of the 10 largest Hearst-Argyle stations
consistently are the #1 TV-station sites in their markets. The
Hearst-Argyle sites are also at the leading edge in providing wireless
application protocol (WAP) content, podcasts, web-based newscasts,
web-based video and blogs in a broad cross-section of markets.

Hearst-Argyle’s NBC-affiliated stations have launched digital broadcast
carriage of Weather Plus, the 24/7 local weather channels whose template
was developed by NBC and Hearst-Argyle.

Additional information about nbbc can be found at the service’s FAQs
page: http://www.nbbc.com/generalfaqs.html