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Blockbuster and Enron Select Motorola's Streamaster 5000 for Entertainment On-Demand Service Launch.


Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 3, 2001

Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE NYSE

See: New York Stock Exchange
:BBI BBI Blockbuster Inc. (stock symbol)
BBI Berlin Brandenburg International (Airport)
BBI Broadband-Interactive
BBI Browser-Based Interface
BBI Best Brains Inc.
) and Enron Broadband Services, a subsidiary of Enron Corp. (NYSE:ENE), today announced that they are using Motorola's Streamaster(TM) 5000 advanced set top box to provide access to the Blockbuster Entertainment On-Demand service during its launch.

Enron Broadband Services and Blockbuster recently announced that they have begun delivering movies to consumers' televisions via the Blockbuster Entertainment On-Demand service over Enron's broadband network in Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Salt Lake City. The companies also announced that a technical trial of the service had commenced in New York City New York City: see New York, city.
New York City

City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S.
.

In this implementation, the Streamaster 5000 is providing subscribers access to movies on-demand. Currently, consumers are able to start, stop, pause, rewind, and view movies on-demand with VHS (Video Home System) A half-inch, analog videocassette recorder (VCR) format introduced by JVC in 1976 to compete with Sony's Betamax, introduced a year earlier.  visual and sound quality.

"We are proud to be a part of this innovative venture that will open up a new world of entertainment options for the consumer," said Jackie Beauchamp, director and general manager, Multimedia Systems Division, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector. "Motorola's leadership position in enabling the broadband multimedia services market, combined with Blockbuster's powerful entertainment brand and access to customers and Enron's high-speed network, will enable broadband distribution companies to quickly deliver movie services to consumers."

"We're very pleased to be working with Motorola for the launch of our Entertainment On-Demand service. We were especially pleased with the quality of output of the Streamaster system, which we certainly expect to enhance the experience of our subscribers," said Mark Gilman, Blockbuster president New Media. "The Enron and Blockbuster alliance, now with the addition of Motorola, is starting to deliver on the promise of the broadband home entertainment experience."

"Through our relationships with Blockbuster and our distribution providers, we have created a unique and robust technical platform for delivering video on-demand, which will enable the service to be scaled into other markets," said David Cox Prominent people named David Cox:
  • David Cox (Australian politician) - former member of the House of Representatives for the Division of Kingston
  • David Cox (artist) - prominent English landscape painter
  • Sir David Cox (statistician) - prominent English statistician
, Managing Director at Enron Broadband Services. "We are achieving superior levels of quality and security that entertainment on-demand can now deliver." About Streamaster 5000

The software-enabled Streamaster 5000 serves as an in-home "gateway" to a wide-range of interactive multimedia services. The Streamaster system is designed to give broadband distribution providers the ability to offer additional services to consumers such as digital-quality broadcast television services, web access, email, 3D and network games, karaoke, music on-demand, on-line shopping and more. Streamaster 5000 gains its intelligence, like the ability to add new features through remote software upgrades, through DigitalDNA(TM) technology.

About Motorola

Motorola, Inc. is a global leader in providing integrated communications and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 1999 were $33.1 billion. For more information, please visit the Motorola Web site at http://www.motorola.com/.

MOTOROLA, the Stylized styl·ize  
tr.v. styl·ized, styl·iz·ing, styl·iz·es
1. To restrict or make conform to a particular style.

2. To represent conventionally; conventionalize.
 M Logo and all other trademarks indicated as such herein are trademarks of Motorola, Inc. (R)Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. All other product or service names are the property of their trademark owner respective owners.(c) 2000 Motorola, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

About Enron

Enron Broadband Services is a leading provider of high quality, high bandwidth application services See ASP and Web services. . The company's business model combines the power of the Intelligent Network, Enron's Broadband Operating System operating system (OS)

Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs.
, bandwidth trading and intermediation services, and high-bandwidth applications to fundamentally improve experience and functionality of the Internet.

Enron's Broadband Operating System application enables developers to dynamically provision bandwidth for the quality service necessary to deliver broadband content. Enron is also creating a market in bandwidth that will allow network providers to meet the demands of increasingly complex applications at the most competitive price. Enron Broadband Services can be found on www.enron.net.

Enron is one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas and communications companies.

The company, which owns approximately $37 billion in energy and communications assets, produces electricity and natural gas; develops, constructs and operates energy facilities worldwide; delivers physical commodities and financial and risk management services to customers around the world; and is developing an intelligent network platform to facilitate online business.

Fortune magazine has named Enron "Most Innovative Company" for five consecutive years, the Years, The

the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109]

See : Time
 top company for "Quality of Management" and the second best company for "Employee Talent." In addition, Enron ranks in the top quarter of Fortune's "Best 100 Companies to Work for in America." Enron's Internet address There are two kinds of addresses that are widely used on the Internet. One is a person's e-mail address, and the other is the address of a Web site, which is known as a URL. Following is an explanation of Internet e-mail addresses only. For more on URLs, see URL and Internet domain name.  is www.enron.com. The stock is traded under the ticker symbol Ticker Symbol

An arrangement of characters (usually letters) representing a particular security listed on an exchange or otherwise traded publicly. When a company issues securities to the public marketplace, it selects an available ticker symbol for its securities which investors
 "ENE."

About Blockbuster

Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE:BBI) is a publicly traded subsidiary of Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA, VIA.B) and is the world's leading renter of videos, DVDs, and video games with approximately 7,500 stores throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Viacom is the No. 1 platform in the world for advertisers, with preeminent positions in broadcast and cable television, radio, outdoor advertising, and online. With programming that appeals to audiences in every demographic category across virtually all media, the company is a leader in the creation, promotion, and distribution of entertainment, news, sports, and music.

Viacom's well-known brands include CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) See cell broadcast. , MTV MTV
 in full Music Television

U.S. cable television network, established in 1980 to present videos of musicians and singers performing new rock music. MTV won a wide following among rock-music fans worldwide and greatly affected the popular-music business.
, Nickelodeon, VH1, Paramount Pictures, Infinity Broadcasting, UPN UPN User Principal Name (Microsoft Windows 2000)
UPN United Paramount Network
UPN Unión del Pueblo Navarro (Navarrese People Union)
UPN Umgekehrte Polnische Notation
, TNN TNN The National Network (formerly The Nashville Network)
TNN The Nashville Network (now The National Network)
TNN The Nerd Network (online gaming clan) 
, CMT CMT Certified Medical Transcriptionist.

CMT
abbr.
Certified Medical Transcriptionist



CMT

California mastitis test.
, Showtime, and Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster

U.S. publishing company. It was founded in 1924 by Richard L. Simon (1899–1960) and M. Lincoln Schuster (1897–1970), whose initial project, the original crossword-puzzle book, was a best-seller.
. More information about Viacom and its businesses is available at www.viacom.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to Blockbuster's operations, including, without limitation, statements relating to business strategy and objectives, growth opportunities and expectations, new initiatives such as entertainment on-demand, pay-per-view and other home entertainment opportunities, marketing plans and results of operations, including revenue and other financial expectations.

These forward-looking statements are based on Blockbuster's current intent, expectations, estimates, and projections and are not guarantees of future performance. These statements involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors that could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed in or indicated by them.

Factors include, among others: comsumer interest in, and demand for, newly released videos and other Blockbuster product offerings; the impact of competitive product and service offerings and pricing; the effect of game platform cycles; the impact of technological shifts on Blockbuster's business strategy; consumer acceptance of, and demand for, new technologies; Blockbuster's ability to reach agreements with service, product, and content providers on acceptable commercial terms and the success of these alliances and agreements in developing new products and services; the application of laws relating to intellectual property rights; and other factors, as set forth under the heading "Cautionary Statements" in Blockbuster's annual report on Form 10-K Form 10-K

A report required by the SEC from exchange-listed companies that provides for annual disclosure of certain financial information.


Form 10-K

See 10-K.
 for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1999.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Business Wire
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2001, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Publication:Business Wire
Geographic Code:1USA
Date:Jan 3, 2001
Words:1068
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