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British Sky Broadcasting and Sportal, Europe’s leading independent sports online company, today announced that BSkyB has acquired 5.4 per cent in Sportal and, through a commercial agreement, has the right over time to increase its total stake to 12.5 per cent.

In addition, the two companies have also agreed a commercial agreement for strategic operations, including distribution of content on one another¦s internet properties.

Today’s agreement is the latest move in Sky’s recent strategy to become an innovative and leading investor in internet e-commerce companies and Sportal’s strategy to strike partnerships and alliances with major media and rights organisations while maintaining its position as Europe’s leading online independent sports network.

Last year, Sportal announced a strategic relationship with Fininvest for Italy and Spain, and today’s announcement brings Sportal a major new ally in the competitive UK market.

Sportal and Sky will work together to create unique content, launch new sites and develop leading-edge applications and services for interactive media. Sportal and Sky Sports Online will both benefit from online promotion on each other’s sites, capitalising on the exposure generated by the Sky Sports brand and channels in the UK, and by Sportal’s partnerships with leading sports franchises.

BSkyB’s Director of New Media, John Swingewood, said:

‘Sky is excited about this partnership. It also gives us an opening for worldwide distribution of Sky Sports’ own online content. Sky’s community of sports fans will also benefit from being able to draw on the worldwide online sports content that Sportal can offer.’

Rob Hersov, Chief Executive and founder of Sportal, said:

‘BSkyB has revolutionised television in the UK, and has pioneered satellite, multi-channel and digital television in Europe, including the launch of the first interactive TV services.

‘We believe that together with Sky we can set the pace for interactive sports content in both the UK and abroad. Sports covered by Sky are followed around the world and we look forward to expanding the reach of this excellent content.

‘Our alliance with Sky will give us an enormous advantage in reaching sports fans, whether they are on the Web, watching TV, reading a magazine or using a wireless device. We are very excited to be partnering with the UK’s most innovative media company.’

Monday, 31 January 2000

For further information, please contact:
Andrew Sholl at BSkyB on +44 171 705 3191 or 0941 102 294 (pager)
Renate Damhuis at Sportal on +44 171 350 4831
For press enquiries please contact:
Pete Goold at Gnash Communications on +44 171 243 4443 or 01273 570 767

Notes to editors:

About Sportal

Sportal, founded in 1998, is a global and independent sports media organisation. It creates, manages, promotes and commercially develops websites, either in partnership with major sports entities or under its own brand names. Sportal’s headquarters are in London and there are Sportal offices in Paris, Milan, Madrid, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Munich, Melbourne, Cape Town, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur.

The Sportal Network already includes the official sites for Juventus (juventus.it), AC Milan(acmilan.com), AC Parma (acparma.it), Paris Saint-Germain (psg.fr) and Bayern Munich (fcbayern.de), among others. South African Rugby Football Union and Sporting Lisbon join the network next month. Single-sport sites include Scrum.com, the premier rugby website, and the country-focused football sites sportal.co.uk, sportal.it, sportal.fr and sportal.es. In the next few months, Sportal-branded multi-sport sites will join existing multi-sport sites in Denmark (infosport.dk) and Sweden (sportnow.se).

Sportal creates sites with compelling content and leading-edge functionality and features. The Sportal Network provides a global technological and commercial infrastructure, enabling Sportal’s partners to benefit from economies of scale in technology and software development, and provides international advertisers and commercial partners with access to targeted audiences.

About BSkyB

British Sky Broadcasting is the leading provider of sports, movies, entertainment and news to the multichannel market in the UK & Ireland. BSkyB now boasts the largest subscriber base across all distribution platforms – there are 7.86 million subscribers to BSkyB’s services.

Britain’s first digital television platform, Sky digital, was launched on 1 October 1998 and is off to the fastest launch of any digital platform worldwide with more than 1.8 million subscribers in its first year of operation.

Sky’s internet service, Sky.com, is one of the leading general consumer sites on the internet in the UK. Sky Sports Online is one of the country¦s leading general sports site, with an average of 20 million page impressions a month. Subscribers to BSkyB are 44 per cent more likely to use the internet in their homes that the UK population as a whole.