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Reality TV Meets the Mobile World: The Spot Available to Sprint PCS Vision(SM) Customers

Posted on: Thursday, 13 May 2004, 06:00 CDT

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., May 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Sprint today announced the launch of The Spot, an original content drama series produced for wireless, on Sprint PCS Vision Phones, marking the first reality drama delivered to the mobile environment. The show follows five twenty-somethings, all living together in a Santa Monica house, and is currently available on the enhanced Sprint Nationwide PCS Network via select Sprint PCS Vision Phones. The Spot is produced by Cyber Oasys Corp., a Santa Monica-based Internet and wireless content provider.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001013/SPRINTLOGO )

"Sprint has always prided itself on putting pop culture in the palms of its customers' hands via Sprint PCS Vision," said Jeff Hallock, vice president of consumer product marketing for Sprint. "Reality series have developed an avid following, and Sprint is excited to deliver the first reality series to the mobile world."

"Mobile-phone users can now interact with the show that made history when it provided a new paradigm of entertainment almost a decade ago as the world's first episodic website," said Roberta Jean Smith, president of Cyber Oasys Corp. "The new series is delivered using groundbreaking technology developed by Los Angeles-based technology and content-conversion company V-Star's 1KTV."

Produced by StewdioMedia Entertainment Group, The Spot is the first drama series for wireless to use writers, actors and photographers the same way a television show would.

Award-winning Executive Producer of The Spot, Stewart St. John, whose writing and producing credits include television series for Warner Brothers Television, The Disney Channel and Fox, said, "Creating original content for wireless brings its own set of production rules. You can't think in terms of the way you would create for television and just re-purpose it and throw it up on mobile phones. Storytelling on wireless by the very nature of the platform has to be fully interactive to succeed."

The Spot, featuring the daily lives of five twenty-somethings living in a seven-bedroom beach house in Santa Monica, first launched on the World Wide Web on June 7, 1995, and created a global sensation, quickly becoming one of the most-visited sites on the Web.

Engrossed by the twists and turns in the lives of The Spot housemates, audiences from more than 35 countries logged on every day, seven days a week, and the media dubbed the site as an icon of its time.

In its first year, The Spot walked off with the Webby Award for Cool Site of the Year from InfiNet and was hailed by Daily Variety as "Making the efforts of communications giants to produce interactive content look like Edsels on the infopike."

Sprint PCS Vision customers can now interact with the made-for-wireless show and the Spotmates and directly influence the flow and plot of the series. At the end of first quarter 2004, Sprint announced nearly 4.2 million Sprint PCS Vision customers and leads the industry in adoption of advanced wireless- data services. Sprint PCS Vision includes services that allow customers to take and receive pictures from select Sprint PCS Phones; browse the Internet at speeds faster than most dial-up connections; check personal and corporate e-mail; watch clips and stream audio for news and music; and download polyphonic, animated and voice ringers and full-color, graphically rich games and screen savers, anywhere on the enhanced Sprint Nationwide PCS Network.

About Sprint

Sprint is a global integrated communications provider serving more than 26 million customers in over 100 countries. With approximately 65,000 employees worldwide and over $26 billion in annual revenues in 2003, Sprint is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying state-of-the-art network technologies, including the United States' first nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network and an award-winning Tier 1 Internet backbone. Sprint provides local communications services in 39 states and the District of Columbia and operates the largest 100-percent digital, nationwide PCS wireless network in the United States. For more information, visit http://www.sprint.com/ .

About Cyber Oasys

Cyber Oasys Corp., located in Santa Monica, CA, is the owner of internet- based creative properties including dramatic series and games. The company has re-launched http://www.thespot.com/ , the first episodic interactive drama on the Internet, and has joined with V-Star and StewdioMedia Entertainment, LLC, to integrate a wireless component to "The Spot." By implementing its strategy to explore interactivity between multi-media platforms, Cyber Oasys has created another first as the content provider for wireless applications.

About V-Star

V-Star ( http://www.1ktv.com/ ) is a Los Angeles based technology and content conversion company that enables the delivery of consumer preferred high quality television like programming, to the emerging wireless infotainment industry. V-Star's breakthrough 1KTV technology delivers instant, on-demand television quality news, information and entertainment programming to new Java enabled wireless phones.

About StewdioMedia

StewdioMedia Entertainment Group ( http://www.stewdiomedia.com/ ) is a Los Angeles based production company responsible for producing The Spot Wireless. StewdioMedia is an independent production company formed by writer/producer/director Stewart St. John and producer/artist Todd Fisher. StewdioMedia creates original content for film, television, animation and new media, including Internet and wireless entertainment.

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001013/SPRINTLOGOAP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/PRN Photo Desk, +1-888-776-6555 or +1-212-782-2840

Sprint

CONTACT: Jenny Stevens of Sprint, +1-212-450-9516,jennifer.l.stevens@mail.sprint.com , Kay Dangard of Cyber Oasys,+1-310-247-0746, kay@cyberoasys.com , or Kenn Raaf of V*Star, +1-818-704-1346,kraaf@1ktv.com

Web site: http://www.sprint.com/http://www.thespot.com/http://www.1ktv.com/http://www.stewdiomedia.com/

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