ExtendMedia and KickApps Integrate User-Generated Content & Social Networking/Online Video Commerce

Integrated Offering Provides a Strong Path to Monetizing User-Generated Video
for Content Rights Holders, Distributors and Affiliates

BOSTON MA – (June 12, 2007) – At Digital Hollywood Spring today, ExtendMedia Corporation (http://www.extend.com) and KickApps Corporation (http://www.kickapps.com) announced an integrated solution that lets digital media content distributors add user-generated content and social networking features to their online video businesses. The offering combines ExtendMedia’s leading digital content services platform, OpenCASE™, with KickApps’ robust private-label social media platform. By using this integrated offering, digital content distributors and retailers can put the powerful viral effect of a complete social media experience to work within their online video storefront – while enabling the monetization of user-generated or “prosumer”-generated content.

With the top 5 social networking Web sites experiencing triple-digit growth in 20061, online video businesses are eager to tap into methods that convert communities’ eyeballs into revenues.
The joint ExtendMedia – KickApps offering allows rights holders and distributors to launch and control full-blown, private-label community portals that include social networking functionality, viral syndication features, and widgets within an integrated platform and storefront for commercializing online video. By leveraging the combined assets of each firm, the offering allows user-generated content to live side-by-side with brand-sensitive commercial content – while both are appropriately managed, controlled and monetized. The integrated solution is being showcased at the ExtendMedia booth #60 at Digital Hollywood in Santa Monica starting today through June 14.

“User-generated content is the single most democratizing force in the digital media landscape today - though models to monetize it have yet to be defined,” said Will Richmond, president of Broadband Directions, a market intelligence and consulting firm specializing in broadband video. “Solutions that address this fundamental challenge will be welcomed by players across the digital media spectrum who want to earn a return on high-quality UGC offerings.” 

As the download and streaming of online media explodes, ExtendMedia is helping today’s top content distributors to capture and optimize their share of this marketplace. Extend’s flagship technology platform, OpenCASE, provides a complete end-to-end solution for building an ecosystem to ingest, manage, price, bundle, advertise, syndicate and deliver digital content. OpenCASE also provides extensive automation and workflow functionality for asset management, an easy-to-use GUI-based storefront publishing and management application, and comprehensive customer service utilities—all critical components of a digital media commerce offering.

KickApps Corporation provides an industry-leading social media platform that allows any website to integrate a full suite of private-label social media applications. The company offers a suite of cut-and-paste “widgets” that allow site visitors to upload videos, photos and audio files, create their own personal pages, invite friends, and create video blogs. KickApps also provides its customers with a set of sophisticated media management, reporting and administrative tools designed to protect websites from pornography, copyrighted material and user content that may hurt their brands or offend advertisers.

“We have long believed that community is not only the ‘new search’ for content, but that it has also become a fundamental mechanism for distributing digital content — commercial or otherwise,” said Keith Kocho, founder of ExtendMedia. “Combining our sophisticated content commerce capabilities with the grass roots energy and momentum of a social media experience will benefit our customers, their customers, and the digital content industry.”

“Increasingly, publishers and online distributors of digital media are looking to pair their existing offerings with Social Media experiences that enhance the level of engagement from their audience or customer base,” said Alex Blum, CEO of KickApps. “Our partnership with ExtendMedia tracks this evolution perfectly and provides a natural path for the integration of Content, Commerce and Community.”

About ExtendMedia Corporation

Headquartered in Boston, MA, ExtendMedia provides a digital content services platform that enables content rights holders and distributors to quickly create, manage, secure, and monetize content services across broadband, TV and mobile devices.

The company’s flagship product offering, OpenCASE, is purpose-built to satisfy the demanding needs of the media market for an end-to-end, enterprise-class, digital content service delivery platform. Built on a service-oriented architecture, OpenCASE can be rapidly deployed and integrated with existing operational systems giving customers unrivaled flexibility and versatility to create, control and securely deliver high-quality media services. The product is available as an ASP or as an enterprise-licensed, on-premise offering.

ExtendMedia has over 15 years of experience working closely with the world's most successful and innovative communications and media companies including: SHOWTIME, Hewlett Packard, Cablevision, Nelvana Entertainment, Bell Canada, Manitoba Telecom Services and ClickStar. For more information, please visit http://www.extend.com.

ExtendMedia Contacts

Jordy Koski                              Mary Kae Marinac                                 
ExtendMedia                            MKM Corporate Communications
416-535-4222 x2318                978-685-3136                                        
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About KickApps

Selected by BusinessWeek readers as Best of the Web 2008, KickApps provides brands, enterprises and web publishers with solutions that enable social, interactive, dynamic, distributed and data-informed web experiences. KickApps solutions consist of a suite of hosted social and media applications and services that are used by some of the world’s largest websites and brands to grow & engage their online audiences and foster deeper relationships with customers. Clients include: Budget Travel, H&R Block, U2, CW Television, Guinness World Records, Special Olympics, HBO, Cinemax, Cox Television, the Phoenix Suns, the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers and thousands of other sites. For more information, visit www.kickapps.com and www.kickdeveloper.com.

KickApps Public Relations