Chairman of GO.com Delivers Keynote Address at Jupiter Entertainment Forum in Los Angeles.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 1999--

The following keynote address was delivered by GO.com (NYSE:GO) Chairman Steve Bornstein at Jupiter Communications' Entertainment Forum in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Dec. 8:

"Thanks for that great introduction, Gene. It's great to be here.

"Before we talk about the future, let's go back for a second to 1941, where a handful of families have a brand-new box with a CRT sitting in their living rooms. At that point, programming was absolutely riveting -- daily agricultural reports on the price of pork bellies and weather reports filled with isobar numbers. And then, the first real breakthrough...In 1948 'Uncle Miltie' enters our living rooms and our hearts and entertains us with the 'Texaco Star Theater.' This paved the way for half a century of humor and talk. Then, something near and dear to my heart, in 1956, CBS began broadcasting some NFL football games to selected markets across the nation, which fundamentally changed the way Americans experienced their sports.

"But it wasn't until 1999, some 48 years after the first appearance of that wonderful box, that we finally figured out what it was really for:

(Bornstein runs "Millionaire" clip: "You have just won a million dollars!")

"Seriously, it won't take us 48 years to figure out how to program the Internet, nor do we expect its ultimate purpose will be to give away millions of dollars! In fact, we at Disney expect this to generate millions of dollars...and sooner than many expect.

"GO.com is about many things. But, today I'm here at the Jupiter Entertainment Forum, so I want to talk about our plans and our approach to one important piece of our business -- the wonderful world of entertainment.

"The real payoff as I see it, the real payoff, in online entertainment is how we tie Internet technology to the television experience to create a compelling and unique...'television/Internet' experience for our audiences. That's where this gets very exciting for me. This morning I'm going to give you some examples of what we are doing with this convergence. We are not quite where we want to be yet, but we are getting there quickly.

"To find the best applications for online entertainment we need to ask ourselves two questions.

"The first is: 'What exactly is online entertainment?'

"The second is one we should ask in any business...and that is 'What is truly unique about this new application?'

"So, what is the real definition of 'Online Entertainment'?

"We call a lot of things on the Internet 'entertainment' today. But what passes today as entertainment is not enough. We have to provide truly compelling and entertaining experiences if we are going to create the kind of 'guest experience' worthy of the name entertainment.

For instance, using ESPN.com is a leisure-time activity that could be classified as entertainment. But does getting up-to-the-minute scores provide a fundamentally entertaining experience? I don't think so. We need to do more than that!

"So what if you could take someone's passion for baseball and let them actually manage the Yankees for a season as part of a fantasy league? Now, that's an entertaining and compelling experience.

"Entertainment, true entertainment, has been the driver for both radio and television over the years. But, thus far, in the short history of the Internet, our industry's attempts to use entertainment to drive traffic and profitability have not been a success. Some of you may remember that as recently as two years ago, the headlines screamed, 'Online Entertainment Is Dead!' 'The Spot' Web site failed commercially, and powerhouses such as Microsoft and AOL abandoned their original content strategies, even after all the hype.

"But I don't believe that online entertainment is dead...In fact, I don't think it's really even been born yet.

"And I say this because online surfers simply can't stay away from anything that even smacks of 'entertainment.' Today, research shows that the majority of all queries conducted through search engines are for entertainment-related topics. Build them something really entertaining, compelling and engrossing, and they will come.

"And what will really bring them in, is when we answer the second question and capitalize on this medium's extraordinary and unique qualities.

"As I see it, the Internet experience offers three things -- separately and in combination -- that are simply not available on any other medium.

1.  Activity -- the chance to actually do something rather than
    just sit passively.

2.  Interactivity -- the thrill of having something come back at you
    in direct response to what you just did, and

3.  Real-time community -- one of the highest values for all human
    beings and a vanishing experience in modern life.

"At GO, what we call entertainment is innovative programming that combines these three qualities. And we believe the more we build these qualities into our applications, the more we will drive audience and drive profits...We simply cannot lay back and rely on the Internet only as an information or marketing channel anymore!

"The success of ESPN was driven by the same kind of strategy. We identified the unique programming possibilities in the world of sports and then we executed against them.

"So given the unique programming possibilities for the Internet, together with the unique assets of The Walt Disney Company, we have embarked on a mission to develop online entertainment that is indeed active and interactive, bringing with it possibilities of real-time community...and fused that directly with our on-air programming. And since we have television friends in high places, in Burbank, Century City and New York, we've convinced them to do the same.

"So let me show you a few of the things we've been working on.

"First, let's look at one of our core audiences: kids. As many of you know, we currently host a block of programming on Disney Channel that runs each weekend. The block is hosted by the most extraordinary creatures -- the Zoogs. The Zoogs live in some of the most coveted real estate anywhere -- the space between the television and the Internet.

"During the program block, the Zoogs invite kids to engage in online polls, chats and a host of other interactive activities that will actually influence -- and in some cases, even drive -- the next weekend's programming. The kids get a payback by seeing the results of their Internet play displayed on TV. Let me show you what I'm talking about.

(Bornstein runs "Zoog" tape)

"This is a powerful cycle that drives kids from the TV to the Web, and back to the TV again. Currently Zoog has over 1.3 million registered users, and the Disney Channel's ratings have increased 25 percent quarter to quarter. The Zoog Disney experience really evolves the relationship we have with these kids. It also generates a lot of traffic, and appeals to the 'tweens,' who we all know are driving significant Internet usage.

"Another example of truly interactive television that I'm particularly proud of is our `Enhanced TV' coverage of NFL football games on ABC and ESPN.

"This application allows football fans to actually squeeze more football experience out of a single game than has ever been possible in the history of sports. Let me tell you how we came up with this.

"A couple years ago, we learned that online usage on the NASCAR site peaked every Sunday during the live telecasting of the race. That seemed counterintuitive.

"Why wouldn't usage drop when all the NASCAR fans were tuned into the actual race, the very thing they'd been anxiously waiting for all week?

"What we learned was that television alone could not give race fans what they really wanted, which was the ability to follow their favorite driver during the course of the race. In their quest for this information, sports fans had created their own sort of convergence by using the Internet to supplement what they were watching on television. The NASCAR site, through our GameCast program, gave fans the sort of real-time statistics that allowed them to follow their favorite drivers.

"So Enhanced TV does that and more. At present 50 percent of all Internet-connected households have a computer and television in the same room. What's great about Enhanced TV is that it gives fans unique and interactive content via the Web that is synchronized, to the second, with the game. Let me show you how this one works.

(Bornstein runs Enhanced TV tape.)

"Not surprisingly, the number of Enhanced TV users has been steadily increasing, up to over 100,000 users per game now, and they stay with us for an average of 45 minutes per game! To put this into context, the average user of ESPN.com spends about 45 minutes per month on the site -- which, as you know, is a very long time. And, we're making this even better. In the future we'll add chat and buddy lists so people can play with their friends across the country.

"The last thing I want to share with you has to do with the most successful new TV program of this season: ABC's phenomenal 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' During its most recent run in November, 'Millionaire' captivated millions of Americans each and every night...averaging 24 million people per night, to be exact.

"Consistent with our strategy, we were determined that the online version of this hit show would be as compelling as the show itself.

"So...we had to make it active, interactive and create a feeling of community. For those of you who may have missed the show, I wanted to show you a short clip of what we had to work with.

(Bornstein runs "Millionaire" tape.)

"As you can see, there's a lot to work with here, and in general we believe that great game shows are one of the ideal genres for `television/Internet' integration. So here's what we did.

"During the show's first run in August, ABC.com hosted a `Millionaire' Web site with a description of the show, background on the contestants and some message boards.

"The second run of the show was in November, and this time we got more aggressive. The `Millionaire' site, which was promoted relatively lightly during the telecast, actually offered an online version of the game with original questions each day that coincided with the show's broadcast each night. We gave all those at-home contestants the chance to test their abilities to see how they might do. Over the 18 days the show ran in November, the game was downloaded more than 5 million times. Of those, about 500,000 people actually made it to the Millionaire Winners page. In other words, nearly half a million people experienced the excitement of becoming a millionaire...the only thing missing was the cash.

"The next generation is where this gets interesting. I'll let Regis tell you.

(Bornstein runs Regis tape.)

"Twenty years ago, no one would have guessed that a channel dedicated solely to sports could even be a success, much less one of the most successful television networks ever...but that's the power of entertainment vehicles that get people actively involved with a vast community of others of like mind.

"I was privileged to be there at the beginning of that phenomenon at ESPN and feel equally privileged to be here, as we, in this room, literally redefine how the world watches television and entertains itself.

"But unlike the challenges that came with trying to find programming for that Cathode Ray Tube box sitting on living room tables in 1941, we are not starting from scratch. We have the incredible advantage of being able to build on 75 years of creative programming talent that has preceded our efforts.

"The possibilities are truly endless. But one thing I can tell you for sure...the entertainment magic that the Disney lineage has brought to the world, a magic that flourishes in every other entertainment medium, will be one of the major drivers in this one as well.

"Thank you very much."