NOTES & NEWS REPORT FOR 4/5
- 04/05/2006 (1:13:16 pm)
- Keith Lipinski
Mobile Madness and so much more…..
Some house notes:
1. No Warrior @ DePaul for me yesterday, I came in late and the room was already full. I hope to have a report from someone there later on today.
2. I'm on WrestleCrap radio on Friday talking about my Mania experience and meeting Tim White
3. Dr. Keith Show will be up by Friday morning with Jack Evans, Rebecca Knox, Sonjay Dutt, and "highlights" of the mania press conference
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Spike TV, Amp'd Mobile and The Ultimate Fighting Championship(R) to Deliver First Ever Network Sporting Event Simulcast Live to Mobile Device
Spike TV's 'Ultimate Fight Night(TM)Live' to be delivered LIVE from Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS, April 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Spike TV, where men get more action, today announced that Amp'd Mobile, the first fully integrated mobile entertainment company, will simulcast the first-ever LIVE network sporting show to a mobile device. Amp'd Mobile has partnered with Spike TV and the Ultimate Fighting Championship(R) to simulcast Ultimate Fight Night(TM) Live, featuring some of the best mixed martial arts fighters in the world, directly to the handsets of Amp'd Mobile members live. The event is being held at The Joint in Las Vegas April 6, 2006 at 8:00 pm EDT and will air on Spike TV.
Amp'd Mobile is the official wireless sponsor of UFC(R) and is exclusively featuring Spike's UFC programming in the mobile space. In late 2005, Amp'd was the first carrier worldwide to mobilecast UFC's pay-per-view event to its handsets, and has since mobilecast UFC 56, 57, and 58. In addition to offering subscribers instant wallpapers, screensavers and ringtones, this partnership provides exclusive UFC content including exciting Octagon action, fighter interviews, training profiles, pre-fight weigh-ins, and "best of" clips of Spike TV's The Ultimate Fighter(R).
The April 6th main event for Ultimate Fight Night Live pits The Ultimate Fighter Season 2 semifinalist Keith "The Dean of Mean" Jardine, who will be dropping down to the light heavyweight division, against Season 1 finalist Stephan "The American Psycho" Bonnar. The fight card also features both Season 2 champions of The Ultimate Fighter in action, with heavyweight winner Rashad Evans putting his undefeated MMA record on the line as a light heavyweight versus Season 1's Sam "The Alaskan Assassin" Hoger. Middleweight winner Joe "Daddy" Stevenson battles Josh "The Dentist" Neer. Also fighting is The Ultimate Fighter Season 1 alumnus Chris "The Crippler" Leben, who hopes to pick up his 15th MMA victory in a middleweight bout with Luigi Fioravanti.
"Amp'd continues to raise the industry bar in wireless broadcasting with its first-ever simulcast of a sporting event live to our mobile handsets," said Seth Cummings, senior vice president, wireless content & Internet services for Amp'd Mobile. "We're excited to kick off the full episode programming category on Amp'd with Spike TV and UFC's Ultimate Fight Night Live. We look forward to furthering the vision of our broad partnership with MTV Networks and expanding on this groundbreaking simulcast."
"We are excited to be the first network to simulcast a live broadcast programming to mobile handsets," said Kevin Kay, executive vice president and general manager, Spike TV. "Amp'd Mobile affords Spike a truly unique opportunity to program content directly into a Spike TV channel within their handset entertainment deck, mirroring the approach of traditional cable and satellite programming guides. This groundbreaking event with UFC and Amp'd provides an ideal first step to extending our brand and reach to our male audience anywhere, anytime."
To complement this inimitable content offering from Spike TV and UFC's Ultimate Fight Night Live, Amp'd Mobile Mobile
About Spike TV
Spike TV is available in more than 90 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks. A unit of Viacom (NYSE:VIA) (NYSE:VIA.B) , MTV Networks is one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. MTV Networks, with more than 100 channels worldwide, owns and operates the following television programming services - MTV: MUSIC TELEVISION, MTV2, VH1, mtvU, NICKELODEON, NICK at NITE, COMEDY CENTRAL, TV LAND, SPIKE TV, CMT, NOGGIN, VH1 CLASSIC, LOGO, MTVN INTERNATIONAL and THE DIGITAL SUITE FROM MTV NETWORKS, a package of 13 digital services, with all of these networks trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV Networks connects with its audiences through its robust consumer products businesses and its more than 95 interactive properties worldwide, including online, broadband, wireless and interactive television services and also has licensing agreements, joint ventures, and syndication deals whereby all of its programming services can be seen worldwide.
About Amp'd Mobile
Amp'd Mobile is the first integrated mobile entertainment company for youth, young professionals and early adopters, and the only 3G carrier in the US specifically targeting youth and young professionals. By leveraging the power of broadband wireless (EVDO),
Amp'd Mobile offers traditional services such as voice and text within a completely fresh user interface designed specifically for the "mobile graduate" and third-generation (3G) technology. With a myriad of customizable options to meet each person's individual needs, as well as strategic alliances with top entertainment properties, such as MTVN and Universal Music Group, Amp'd Mobile brings a more relevant, personal experience to the wireless lifestyle with unique music, video, community, entertainment, sports and gaming offerings divided into various channels for quick and easy access. Amp'd Mobile
About The Ultimate Fighting Championship
The Ultimate Fighting Championship(R) brand is the world's leading professional mixed martial arts organization and offers the premier series of MMA sports events. Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, and headquartered in Las Vegas , Nev. U.S. Japan Brazil United Kingdom
Ultimate Fighting Championship(R), Ultimate Fighting(R), UFC(R), The Ultimate Fighter(R), Submission(R), As Real As It Gets(R), The Octagon(TM) and the eight-sided competition mat and cage design are registered trademarks, trademarks, trade dress or service marks owned exclusively by Zuffa, LLC in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other marks referenced herein may be the property of Zuffa, LLC or other respective owners.
Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060322/NYW096LOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, [email protected]
Source: Spike TV
CONTACT: Liz Jaeger, [email protected] , or Bill Horn, [email protected] ,
both of BWR Public Relations, +1-310-550-7776; David Schwarz,
+1-212-767-8639, or Bobby Amirshahi, +1-310-961-0273, both of Spike TV; Jim
Byrne of UFC, +1-212-397-0081
Web site: http://www.spiketv.com/
WWE(R) and Volantis Join Forces To Enable Launch Of New WWE Mobile(TM) Platform
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 5, 2006--World Wrestling Entertainment(R) and Volantis today announced a new, multi-year, strategic partnership to help launch a new WWE mobile portal worldwide, supported by Volantis' Mobile Content Framework and Storefront solutions.
WWE is set to launch a slate of original mobile specific content later this spring, including programs and services that feature dedicated, exclusive video content and other one-of-a-kind material. It introduced its first offering, WWE Mobile Alert, an exclusive SMS subscription package, in March.
The demand for WWE content outside of its popular television programming has been growing, particularly online. WWE has seen monthly unique visitors to WWE.com increase to more than 13.6 million in February 2006, an increase of 92 percent from the prior year, as it has made its website more news oriented.
"WWE views developing and supplying content to the mobile industry as a strategic growth opportunity. The agreement with Volantis is a critical part of our plans to take advantage of the mobile market, and gives us the technology and tools we need to build a robust infrastructure and solid foundation to run our mobile business both on and off portal," said David Knise, WWE Vice President, Interactive Development. "Volantis offers a global presence, an established network of carrier partners worldwide, and domain expertise that will help accelerate bringing our products to market in the U.S. and ultimately worldwide. It provided the scaleable platform we need to support an integrated offering of mobile content from WWE that is integrated with existing WWE marketing programs and business initiatives."
WWE undertook a long and detailed analysis of Volantis and how the company fits WWE's future mobile plans. After a rigorous market survey and competitive product analysis, Volantis Mobile Content Framework and Storefront, along with Professional Services, was chosen as the best in class for content development and distribution. Said Knise, "The pros at Volantis were professional and easy to work with throughout the process, even if some of our due diligence went beyond what Volantis would normally expect in a process like this."
Knise noted that the strategic partnership with Volantis is the first of several new technologies and applications that will be introduced over the next several months.
"Volantis is thrilled to collaborate with WWE for the global deployment of their mobile platform. WWE's established global presence will benefit from the launch of a dynamic, creative portal powered by Volantis that helps capture the core personality of WWE," said Matthew Harris, Chief Executive Officer of Volantis. "WWE, with its commitment to its tens of millions of loyal fans worldwide, is a perfect fit with Volantis. WWE's desire to make cool content available wherever and whenever fans want it was exactly what we had in mind with our Storefront product and services."
Volantis (www.volantis.com ) is the world's leading supplier of Intelligent Content Adaptation(TM) solutions for the mobile Information Age, providing applications, tools and platforms that solve the complexity of delivering optimized services to any mobile device.
Volantis extensive experience of serving content providers, mobile network operators, and enterprises, along with its standards leadership, enable a unique position for Volantis to create innovative technology for the Mobile Information Age that is more useful and more useable than the PC Internet of today.
Volantis is used around the world by organizations such as 3, Hearst, Accenture, Channel 4, Cingular, CSC, Discovery, eBay.co.uk, FT.com, HP, IBM, lastminute.com, MobileOne, Orange Poland, Reuters, Telefonica Moviles, Telecom Italia Mobile and Telenor Mobil. Volantis also Chairs the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Device Independence Working Group and is a Founding Member of the W3C Mobile Web Initiative.
Volantis global headquarters are in Seattle , USA London , UK Hong Kong , China Madrid , Spain Krakow , Poland
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: WWE), is an integrated media and entertainment company headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto and London. Additional information on the company can be found at WWE.com and www.corporate.wwe.com.
Trademarks: The names of all World Wrestling Entertainment televised and live programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans and wrestling moves and all World Wrestling Entertainment logos are trademarks which are the exclusive property of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include the conditions of the markets for live events, broadcast television, cable television, pay-per-view, Internet, entertainment, professional sports, and licensed merchandise; acceptance of the Company's brands, media and merchandise within those markets; uncertainties relating to litigation; risks associated with producing live events both domestically and internationally; uncertainties associated with international markets; risks relating to maintaining and renewing key agreements, including television distribution agreements; and other risks and factors set forth from time to time in Company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results could differ materially from those currently expected or anticipated. In addition to these risks and uncertainties, our dividend is based on a number of factors, including our liquidity and historical and projected cash flow, strategic plan, our financial results and condition, contractual and legal restrictions on the payment of dividends and such other factors as our board of directors may consider relevant.
Contacts
Volantis
Media Contact:
Justin Siefert, 404-266-2060 x20
or
Axel Kirstetter, + 44 1483 739816
or
WWE Investor Contact:
Michael Weitz, 203-352-8642
or
WWE Media Contact:
Gary Davis, 203-353-5066
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Ultimate Fight Night - TOMORROW Thursday, April 6, 2006
The Joint - Hard Rock Hotel & Casino , Nevada
1. Stephan Bonnar vs. Keith Jardine
2. Rashad Evans vs. Sam Hoger
3. Joe Stevenson vs. Josh Neer
4. Chris Leben vs. Luigi Fioravanti
5. Luke Cummo vs. Jason Von Flue
6. Josh Burkman vs. Jon Fitch
7. Josh Koscheck vs. Ansar Chalangov
8. Brad Imes vs. Dan Christison
9. Trevor Prangley vs. Chael Sonnen
UFC 59 - Saturday April 15, 2006 - Arrowhead Pond - Anaheim , CA
1. UFC Heavyweight Championship: Andrei Arlovski vs. Tim Sylvia
2. Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin
3. David Terrell vs. Scott Smith
4. Nick Diaz vs. Sean Sherk
5. Jeff Monson Vs. Marcio Cruz
6. Karo Parisyan Vs. Nick Thompson
7. Jason Lambert Vs. Terry Martin
8. Thiago Alves Vs. Derrick Noble
9. Evan Tanner Vs. Justin Levens
TNA Lockdown - Sunday, April 23, 2006 - Orlando , FL
1. Six Sides Of Steel Cage - LETHAL LOCKDOWN~! (Steel Cage with roof, weapons will be hanging in the center of the ring. Anything goes…no escape…no surrender): Jarrett's Army (Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner & AMW) vs. Stings Army (Sting and three other men to be announced on Spike TV's debut Thursday episode on 4/13)
2. Six Sides Of Steel Cage - NWA World Heavyweight Title: Christian Cage vs. Abyss
3. Six Sides Of Steel Cage: Samoa Joe vs. Sabu
4. Six Sides Of Steel Cage - X-Division Title: Christopher Daniels vs. Jushin “Thunder” Liger
WWE Backlash - Sunday, April 30, 2006 - Lexington , KY
1. Vince & Shane McMahon vs. Shawn Michaels & GOD(~!)
UFC 60 - Saturday, May 27, 2006 - Staples Center Los Angeles , CA
1. Matt Hughes vs. Royce Gracie
WWE PPV Schedule
Judgment Day - 5/21/2006 - Phoenix , AZ America
ECW One Night Stand - 6/11/2006 - New York , NY
Vengeance - 6/25/2006 - Charlotte , NC
Great American Bash - 7/23/2006 - Indianapolis , IN
SummerSlam - 8/27/2006 - Boston , MA TD Bankworth Garden
Unforgiven - 9/17/2006 - Toronto Air Canada Center
No Mercy - 10/8/2006 - Raleigh , NC RBC Center
Cyber Sunday - 11/5/2006 - Cincinnati , OH
Survivor Series - 11/26/2006 - TBD
Armageddon - 12/17/2006 - Richmond , VA Richmond
TNA PPV Schedule
Sacrifice - Sunday, May 14, 2006 - Orlando
Slammiversary - Sunday, June TBD - Orlando, FL
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