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HandHeld Entertainment Announces European Strategy for Online Video and Content, As Well As Its Plans to Grow Its Localised User-Generated Media in Europe

Posted on: Tuesday, 10 April 2007, 06:00 CDT

HandHeld Entertainment™ (NASDAQ:ZVUE)(NASDAQ:ZVUEW) a global digital-media-to-go company, today formally unveiled its strategy for becoming one of the largest providers of online videos and other media in Europe.

"There are two aspects to our European strategy," said Jeff Oscodar, president and chief executive officer of HandHeld Entertainment. "First, by acquiring Putfile.com™, YourDailyMedia.com™ and UnOriginal.co.uk™, we immediately put our company into a leadership position to deliver online videos and digital content to our customers in both the United Kingdom and Europe. Second, because Putfile.com is structured as a utility, rather than an editorial site, it can be easily replicated into other languages. This will allow us to create local language versions of Putfile across Europe. We believe that local language implementations will accelerate our traffic acquisition throughout Europe and thereby provide an even stronger platform upon which advertisers can reach their customers."

HandHeld Entertainment announced last month that it had acquired UnOrginal.co.uk, the third consecutive Web property HandHeld has acquired since mid-December 2006 that is based in Europe and the second site that is based in the U.K. These sites give the company significant European traffic, particularly in the U.K.

In addition, the company will use Putfile.com -- an England-based Web site that has been described by Arash Amel of Screen Digest (one of the top analysts in Europe) as one of the top two providers of user-generated online video in the U.K. -- as a foundation for creating content upload sites for languages other than English.

"When we announced the Putfile acquisition, we believed that Putfile.com would not only provide a large amount of traffic and a large library of videos, but that the site would become a platform for our European strategy," Oscodar said. "We are now announcing that strategy. Our European acquisitions have positioned us to take a leadership position in the European market for online video, both because we have acquired great sites and because we can use Putfile to expand into languages other than English. We believe that there are significant growth opportunities for us in the European market, and we are putting ourselves in a position to exploit them."

HandHeld's Acquisitions Place Company in a Significant Position in Europe, Analyst Says

Arash Amel, senior analyst and head of Broadband Digital Media research at Screen Digest, a market research firm based in England, has commented on HandHeld Entertainment's acquisition strategy.

"By acquiring companies like Putfile, HandHeld Entertainment has put itself into a significant and unique position in the European user-generated video market," Amel said. "Creating localised Web sites in multiple languages is a positive step and can only help generate traffic from local users. Additionally, the fact that HandHeld has its own line of personal media players further sets the company apart from the rest of the pack, and I think they have developed quite a singular European strategy."

In January 2007, Amel authored "User-generated online video: Competitive review and market outlook," a Screen Digest report that examines the current state of the online video marketplace, identifies selected leaders in the industry (at the time of the report), and projects future growth and revenue prospects for the industry. (See http://www.screendigest.com/reports/06usergeneratedvideo/readmore/view .html for more information on this report.)

HandHeld Entertainment has also acquired two other Web properties since mid-November 2006 (FunMansion.com™ and Dorks.com™), and each Web site by HandHeld (so far) is focused on delivering user-generated videos and other media to consumers around the world. The more than 500,000 videos on the HandHeld network of Web sites are available for online viewing, with many also available for use on a personal video player, such as HandHeld Entertainment's ZVUE™ brand personal media player (PMP), as well as other brands of PMPs.

The premium and free content available on HandHeld Entertainment's network of Web properties include music videos, anime features, television shows, movies, cartoons, independent films, documentaries, and news, entertainment and sports programs from companies ranging from Sony BMG, Showtime and IMG Media to Canadian Broadcast Corp., Egami Media and Fun Little Movies, as well as free user-generated and user-submitted video selections and other forms of media. Customers can also select from millions of songs that can be played on a PMP through HandHeld Entertainment's relationships with eMusic and Rhapsody (see http://www.zvue.com/html/music.php).

About HandHeld Entertainment, Inc.

HandHeld Entertainment (NASDAQ:ZVUE) is a global digital-media-to-go company. Its network of Web sites (Putfile.com, YourDailyMedia.com, FunMansion.com, Dorks.com, UnOriginal.co.uk and ZVUE.com™) now house more than 500,000 user-generated and premium videos in total -- videos available for purchase or free viewing. Its ZVUE personal media players are mass-market priced and available for purchase online and currently in more than 2,200 Wal-Mart stores throughout the U.S. For more information, visit www.hheld.com.

HandHeld Entertainment, Putfile.com, YourDailyMedia.com, UnOriginal.co.uk, Dorks.com, FunMansion.com, ZVUE and ZVUE.com are trademarks of HandHeld Entertainment. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

"Safe Harbor" Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors including the ability of the company to successfully commercialize its new technologies as well as risk factors set forth from time to time in HandHeld Entertainment's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including Annual Reports on Form 10-KSB, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-QSB and Current Reports on Form 8-K and other reports filed by the company with the SEC. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements, which may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. As a result, investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Source: Business Wire

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