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Spark Capital Leads thePlatform's Series B Financing, Chooses Leading Digital Media Publishing Solution

Posted on: Thursday, 12 January 2006, 06:00 CST

SEATTLE, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on its category-leading momentum, thePlatform(TM), an innovative provider of digital audio and video publishing solutions, today announced it has closed series B financing from Spark Capital, a new venture capital partnership focused on investments at the intersection of the media, entertainment and technology industries. thePlatform also announced ABC News, Starz Entertainment Group's Vongo(SM) and Amp'd Mobile as customers now using thePlatform Media Publishing System(TM) (MPS) to deliver high-value television, movie and mobile video content over broadband and wireless networks. These customers add to the nearly 50 companies powered by MPS today, and more than 240 content owners already plugged into the software system. Additionally, Generation Partners renewed its commitment to thePlatform by deepening its investment via this expansion round.

"We're thrilled to be selected by a venture capital firm like Spark, whose founders have a combined century of experience in building and backing leaders in media and technology," said Ian Blaine, co-founder and CEO of thePlatform. "This latest round of VC financing will help fuel the next stage of our rapid growth, as we expand our development of digital media content management, syndication, advertising and mobile solutions."

With a team of traditional and digital media entertainment veterans, Spark Capital has the vision, knowledge, and creativity to identify and cultivate companies that are best positioned to take advantage of the rapid transformation of media and content in today's marketplace.

"thePlatform is the emerging leader in empowering media companies to syndicate their content over broadband networks direct to consumers or through partners in multiple networks and devices," said Santo Politi, founder and general partner, Spark Capital. "The strength of the solution is evidenced by its high-profile customer roster and its rapid growth. This, our first investment, is consistent with our theme of investing in market leading companies at the forefront of the digital revolution."

Since introducing thePlatform Media Publishing System (MPS) in 2001, thePlatform has served a total of more than 2 billion media requests. With today's announcement, thePlatform is demonstrating how leaders in television, movies and wireless content delivery are choosing MPS to help power their services, including:

-- ABC News is using thePlatform MPS to manage and publish digital video news stories delivered through its online ABC News On Demand premium video service. -- Amp'd Mobile chose thePlatform to aggregate and manage digital audio and video for personalized delivery to its members' handsets and computers. Amp'd Mobile launched recently with a wide range of unique content across music, games, sports, entertainment, news and lifestyle, created specifically for broadband wireless and youth/young adults. -- Starz Entertainment Group is using the Platform MPS for its new Vongo broadband video download service that delivers movies and other video content over the Internet for playback on Windows-based PCs, laptops, and select portable media devices, as well as on a TV. Vongo subscribers enjoy unlimited access to more than 1000 movies and video selections, as well as the streaming Starz TV channel.

"thePlatform continues to execute on its strategy for taking digital media content publishing to the next level," said John Hawkins, Managing General Partner at Generation Partners. "Our additional investment in thePlatform reflects the tremendous promise we see in this company and the market, both of which are poised for rapid expansion."

About thePlatform Media Publishing System

MPS enables content owners and aggregators to manage and publish their media in a variety of digital audio and video codecs and formats, including Windows Media, Flash, Real, MPEG-4, 3GPP and others, for playback on PCs, as well as a variety of portable media players and cell phones. With the integrated content management features in MPS, content owners can logically manage and organize their media, using unlimited content categories. Using built-in MPS features for end-user authentication, digital media content can be secured and accessed via proper authentication or it can be made freely available. Through advanced commerce and digital rights management support, content can be published with recurring subscription, pay-per-view or advertising business models. Content owners or aggregators can deploy MPS as a carrier-grade hosted (ASP), a self-hosted solution, or as a hybrid application.

About thePlatform

Headquartered in Seattle, thePlatform is an industry-leading provider of digital media publishing solutions. The company's flagship product, thePlatform Media Publishing System (MPS), is a comprehensive solution for media, entertainment and enterprise customers. With thePlatform MPS, customers can publish digital media anywhere -- over any network, to any device. Leading customers include ABC News, Amp'd Mobile, Bank of America, CNBC, Comcast, Court TV, GoTV Networks, Microsoft, National Geographic, Scripps Networks, The Wall Street Journal Online and Verizon Wireless. Custom feature enhancements and seamless systems integration are a simple matter using thePlatform's Web services MPS-SDK. For more information visit http://www.theplatform.com/.

About Spark Capital

Spark Capital is a venture capital fund investing in ideas, entrepreneurs and companies building businesses that transform the distribution, management and monetization of media and content. Spark's General Partners are successful natives of the media and technology industries, and have proven track records identifying, and actively building market leading companies in sectors including infrastructure (Qtera, RiverDelta, Aether Systems, Broadbus, and BigBand), networks (College Sports Television, TVONE and XCOM) and content delivery systems (Akamai). With deep relationships in technology and media, investing and operations, Spark Capital is uniquely positioned to provide world class entrepreneurs and revolutionary companies with the intelligence, network and resources needed to succeed in today's marketplace. With $260 million in funding, Spark Capital is acutely focused on investment strategies that are at the nexus of content, distribution and technology.

About Generation Partners

Generation Partners is a $325 million private investment firm focused on providing equity capital to growth-oriented companies through buyout, growth equity, and venture capital investments. Some of Generation's portfolio companies include: MedVance Institute, Sterling Testing Systems, Agility Recovery Solutions, High End Systems, Hotjobs, Promatory Communications, thePlatform, and American Cellular Corp. The firm has offices in Greenwich, CT and San Francisco, CA. For more information about Generation Partners, please visit http://www.generation.com/.

Webs site: http://www.theplatform.com

thePlatform

CONTACT: Bruce Jacobs of Weber Shandwick, +1-425-452-5400, orthePlatform@WeberShandwick.com, for thePlatform

Web site: http://www.generation.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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