Action replay football anywhere, anytime with Makra, Codeonline and Packet Video consortium

Three-way partnership defines technology model for premium wireless interactive sports entertainment

London 23 October 2001, Finnish-based Makra, Codeonline and US-based PacketVideo announce the joint development of a premium wireless video sports platform that will provide the blueprint for a wide range of on-demand 'pay-as-you-play' and subscription based mobile interactive sports and entertainment services.

The consortium will demonstrate the wireless sports pilot project at the Streaming Media show, London Excel from 23 - 25 October and plans to deliver the initial live commercial applications in Europe by early next year.

Makra Oy, a leading Finnish sports marketing company is the official marketing partner for the Finnish Football Association and the Finnish Premier league. The company operates the leading Finnish football portal, www.suomifutis.net, including video highlights, online match reports and betting, plus Active-Manager, where fans can actually influence and participate in the management of their team via SMS.

"We are thrilled to team up with both PacketVideo and Codeonline and to link their superior technical video know-how and expertise in interactive wireless entertainment to our existing football portal in order to create a unique full scale interactive and entertaining Wireless Sports Portal concept for key players in the global sports market, such as the top football clubs and leagues", says Arto Vallila, CEO and founder of Makra Oy.

Matti Hämäläinen, founder and CTO of Codeonline says: "This new technology partnership provides the platform for delivery of short video clips even over low-bandwidth networks and opens a gateway to a broad choice of commercial wireless options, from goal action replay on your hand-held device, to interactive real-time voting and 'What happens next?' video clips.

"Football lends itself perfectly to this medium and has a strong mobile subscription base already for club and match news. Our games are already popular in several countries including the UK and we are convinced that there is a huge global market for interactive mobile sports entertainment."

PacketVideo, a recognised leader in wireless multimedia, is providing the PacketVideo PVServer and PVPlayer based on MPEG4 technology that enables the streaming video to be delivered as part of an interactive entertainment package, while Codeonline, with its expertise in premium brand wireless games and entertainment, provides the high capacity WIPE (Wireless Interactive Platform for Entertainment) technology platform and worldwide delivery capabilities, for a fully hosted and proven mobile service.

"Network operators can now launch mobile video sports services on GPRS networks. The opportunity for fans to subscribe to exclusive club or event based goal clips, interviews and competitions opens up a whole new revenue stream for operators," says Anthony Sheehan, Director of Developer Relations for PacketVideo Europe. "Makra and Codeonline are an example of the partnerships we are creating in the PacketVideo Global Developer Network, innovative developers who really understand how to embed multimedia clips into engaging interactive mobile applications and services."

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About Makra
Makra Oy, founded in 1989, is a company specialized in sports and leisure marketing, consulting and exploitation of media rights of sporting events, including the new media and mobile solutions. Makra has a wide contact and business network with most of the major international players in the market as well as with various sports organizations in Finland. It is e.g. the Official Marketing Partner of the Finnish Football Association, the Finnish Premier League and the 1st Division.
Makra owns and operates the leading Finnish football portal at www.suomifutis.net.

About Codeonline
Codeonline, based in Espoo, Finland is a leading company in interactive wireless entertainment based on established consumer brands, including Trivial Pursuit™ and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?™. Codeonline designs, develops and markets ready-to-play wireless games to be distributed to consumers via wireless devices, mobile phones in particular. Currently the games are distributed to operators with a user-base of over 100 million subscribers.

About PacketVideo
PacketVideo, the recognized leader in advanced technologies for wireless multimedia communications, provides standards-based products that enable the distribution of one-and two-way video, high quality audio, animation and graphics over wireless networks to mobile devices such as telephones and personal digital assistants. PacketVideo's wireless technology enhances communication, productivity, security, information and entertainment, enabling the delivery of an enriching and productive mobile experience.

PacketVideo's investors include Comverse Technology (Nasdaq: CMTV), Credit Suisse First Boston, GE Equity (NYSE: GE), Intel Capital (Nasdaq: INTC), Kyocera (NYSE: KYO), Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Philips (NYSE: PHG), QUALCOMM (Nasdaq: QCOM), Siemens' Mustang Ventures, Sony Corporation of America (NYSE: SNE), Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW), Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL), and others. To learn more, visit www.pv.com.

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