ChannelSpace Entertainment, Inc., Names Mark Stuart Chief Executive Officer.

Business Editors

CHESAPEAKE, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 17, 2000

ChannelSpace Entertainment, Inc. (CSEI) announces the promotion of Mark Stuart to the position of Chief Executive Officer.

Stuart was formerly Chief Operating Officer at CSEI, which operates CollectingChannel (www.collectingchannel.com) a converged Internet-based content provider for the $100 billion collectibles marketplace.

For Stuart, a routine day at the hot Internet company means living out his fondest fantasy in a world filled with collectibles - coins, toys, wristwatches, gadgets, magazine artwork - that have been his abiding passion since he was first bitten by the collecting bug as a five-year old.

Babyboomer Stuart, 38, occupies every day the same collector's "mind" he developed as a child. Only these days he is hustling to turn ChannelSpace into the world's largest converged content provider. Stuart sees CSEI at the top of a corporate pyramid that embraces everything about anything collectible - a virtual, entertainment-driven megamall encompassing a complete range of offerings, from research to entertainment -- television, radio, video webcasting, merchandising, and a host of personalized services - all supported either directly or indirectly by strategic relationships ChannelSpace has or soon will have with many of the top players on the worldwide web. A major portion of the CollectingChannel infrastructure is either currently available or under development and slated to debut in the first half of the new millennium.

Working At Internet Speed

It's a task perhaps uniquely suited to Stuart's warp speed approach to life - and a typical business day that, he says, needs to address, "multiple complex objectives pursued simultaneously... I have to live on the cutting edge or I am immediately bored. I become completely immersed in every project; I don't distinguish work from play. I have always lived at Internet speed, so I have finally found my niche," Stuart explains.

Stuart joined ChannelSpace only four months ago as Chief Operating Officer - following a chance meeting last year at an Atlantic City antiques show with Barry Friedman, the company's co-founder. They immediately bonded, discovering they shared a vision of a complete, Internet-driven collectibles content gateway. At the time, Stuart was building an Internet auction platform, GoMainline.com, in Philadelphia. "It was something no one else had thought of or applied to the Internet at that time, an opportunity to create something completely new and an effective way to shrink geography for collectors " he recalls. After hosting 40,000 online auctions and creating a successful radio show, Stuart reconnected with Friedman. The pair realized their vision when ChannelSpace purchased GoMainline in November, 1999.

For Stuart, the affiliation with CSEI culminates a fast-track career, much of it in retail, launched following his graduation from Rice University in 1984. "I started out in toothpaste," he recalls of his job as Crest brand sales manager at Proctor & Gamble. A stint as Blockbuster Entertainment's first vice- president, merchandise, was successful on both a personal and professional level - Stuart met his wife, Jackie there. In 1993, Stuart added shoes to his retail expertise at The Kobacker Company, a 1,000-store chain where he was senior vice president/COO and CMO and ran an in-house advertising agency. In 1996, he became vice president, marketing at Linens'n Things.

Converged E-Commerce Gateway

Stuart's background in retail marketing and management brings strength to help CollectingChannel realize its potential as a completely convergent Internet gateway. "The world needs both land-based retail providers and web-based vertical speciality product such as that offered by CollectingChannel," Stuart says. With developing broadband applications such as digitized video and audio and expanding content, including the popular TV show, Treasures In Your Home, (co-produced and distributed by PAX TV,) Stuart views CollectingChannel as, "better positioned than any other company to take advantage of convergence."

Stuart inherited his love of collectibles from his parents. He began collecting coins at age five, when the family's weekend meant scouring St. Louis area antique stores and flea markets for vintage American furniture and art. Wife, Jackie, whom he married in 1990 after a whirlwind, five-week long courtship, was not a collector at first, but after inheriting a piece of vintage Fiesta ware from her grandmother, she, too, has acquired a collector's passion. Her Fiesta ware collection now exceeds 500 pieces and she is also collecting dolls, "and about 20 other categories of collectibles," laughs Stuart. The couple make their home in Philadelphia and Virginia Beach, close by ChannelSpace's Chesapeake, Va. headquarters.