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RealNetworks and IBM Unveil On Demand Framework for Digital Media Services

Posted on: Friday, 9 January 2004, 06:00 CST

LAS VEGAS, Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Jan. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- RealNetworks(R), Inc., and IBM today announced they will develop and bring to market a solution that will enable media companies, network operators, and other businesses to create, protect, and deliver on demand consumer digital audio and video services based on open standards.

With this new offering, companies will have the capability to more easily manage their digital assets through the combination of RealNetworks' breakthrough Real(TM) 10 digital media platform and IBM's powerful middleware software. Integrated into a single solution, the technology will help business users dramatically reduce the start-up costs and time typically associated with deploying digital media services such as Internet-delivered TV programming, mobile music services, and in-car digital music. The new solution, which is scheduled to be available worldwide in the first half of the year, takes aim at a market that research firm IDC predicts will reach almost $1 billion by 2007.

"We are pleased to announce this relationship with IBM today," said Rob Glaser, CEO, RealNetworks, Inc. "Together we will enable our global customers to quickly offer secure and high-quality media services to their consumers whenever they want it and wherever they want it -- at their TV, their PC, in their car, or with their phone."

"We are excited to be working with RealNetworks to enable our global clients to take full advantage of the burgeoning market for digital media," said Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Software Group. "The Real 10 platform, combined with IBM's open standards-based middleware, will offer consumers a flexible solution tailored to their individual needs."

The integrated solution from RealNetworks and IBM will provide businesses with an alternative to building their own infrastructure for digital media distribution and sales. The complexity and time needed to build a commercially viable solution that offered both rock-solid performance, as well as deep integration with billing and other internal services, has previously been a deterrent to companies looking to enter the on demand digital media market. Built on IBM's expertise in content management and e-commerce and RealNetworks' high-performance digital media delivery and subscription management infrastructure, this solution will provide rights holders and service providers with a much simplified and more affordable approach to getting their digital media products directly into consumers' hands. Additionally, the solution will include open APIs to enable third-party applications, such as customer support, subscription management, and security, to interface easily with the on demand digital media service. This will offer customers ease and flexibility in service implementation and provides a path to expand the solution over time.

The Real 10 platform -- which includes RealPlayer(R) 10, RealAudio(R) 10, RealVideo(R) 10, Helix(TM) DRM, and Helix Universal Server -- will be integrated with IBM WebSphere(R) Digital Media Enabler, WebSphere Commerce and DB2(R) Content Manager, providing a comprehensive solution for business users to manage, protect, distribute, and sell audio and video. With this solution, content can easily be uploaded, rights quickly and accurately assessed, and when a sale is complete, securely delivered to the consumer. Additionally, transaction systems can be smoothly integrated with existing billing and fulfillment services. The end-to-end solution will be cross-platform and multi-format to offer clients maximum flexibility in deployment. Clients can choose to implement this solution in-house or as a hosted solution from IBM Global Services and RealNetworks.

Announced earlier this week, the Real 10 platform is an innovative offering for creating, protecting, and playing digital audio and video on PCs, consumer electronic devices, and mobile devices. RealPlayer 10, coupled with the RealPlayer Music Store, offers consumers the ability to manage their music library, as well as buy, transfer, and burn purchased digital music tracks. RealVideo supports HDTV resolution video at approximately 5 Mb/s. RealAudio includes the standards-based AAC codec for consumer music services, lossless compression technology for professional and archiving services, and discrete multichannel audio for 5.1 audio experiences. Rights holders now can combine RealVideo with RealAudio Multichannel for true state-of-the-art digital cinema. RealNetworks first launched content subscription services in 2000 and now has more than 1.3 million paying subscribers.

IBM's WebSphere Digital Media Enabler and Commerce software are designed to help media companies streamline operations, generate new revenues, and simplifying online processes. IBM DB2 Content Manager delivers powerful storage, search and retrieval functions, providing companies the ability to organize "unstructured" data like film clips, video, e-mail, voice mail, images, audio, and business documents and link them to other digital media applications.

ABOUT REALNETWORKS

RealNetworks, Inc. is the leading creator of digital media services and software including the award-winning Rhapsody(R)[ Internet jukebox service and RealPlayer 10. Consumers can access and experience audio/video programming and download RealNetworks' consumer software at http://www.real.com/ . Broadcasters, network operators, media companies and enterprises use RealNetworks' products and services to create and deliver digital media to PCs, mobile phones and consumer electronics devices. RealNetworks' systems and corporate information is located at http://www.realnetworks.com/ .

ABOUT IBM

IBM is the world's largest technology company, providing leadership and innovation throughout the world for more than 80 years. IBM PartnerWorld for Developers, the developer resource for IBM Business Partners, is a worldwide program designed to help software developers reach broader markets, lower their costs of doing business, and take their products to market faster. For more information, visit http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld , or call 1-800-426-9990 in North America, 1-770-863-2048 outside North America.

This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the integration and distribution of RealNetworks' technology with IBM's technology and the integration of this offering with third party technology. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted include the risks associated with IBM technology. More information about potential risk factors that could affect RealNetworks' business and financial results is included in RealNetworks' annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2002, and its applicable quarterly report on Form 10-Q and from time to time in other reports filed by RealNetworks with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

NOTE: Real, RealNetworks, RealAudio, RealVideo, RealPlayer, Rhapsody and Helix are trademarks or registered trademarks of RealNetworks, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

RealNetworks, Inc.

CONTACT: Erika Shaffer of RealNetworks, +1-206-892-6191, oreshaffer@real.com; or Nicholas Clarke of IBM, +1-914-766-1713,nick.clarke@us.ibm.com

Web site: http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld

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

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