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Turner Selects weComm To Deliver Mobile Applications For Brands Including NASCAR.COM

Giving United States Wireless Customers Access to Exclusive Video-on-Demand, Live Feeds and Audio

LONDON, 15th July  2008 - weComm, the leader in interactive mobile data solutions, today announced that it has been selected by Turner Sports, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc (TBS, Inc), as its mobile applications partner to launch feature-rich services including  NASCAR.COM. Turner partnered with weComm to utilize its technology to deliver multiple brands with a single mobile application download, supported on 350 handset models.

The first Turner application for NASCAR.COM, TrackPass Mobile went live in February 2008. weComm has built these portals to be easy-to-use and deliver high-speed updates and video-on-demand even with limited cellular network availability. The services will use various business models including subscription, free with advertising and micro payments.  

Each subscriber can personalise his or her TrackPass experience to follow his or her favourite drivers. The application includes Live Leaderboard, Laps Led and an innovative PitCommand section where fans can view live-updating race information and car positions on a track graphic along with in-car telemetry data for speed, throttle/brake positions and RPM. Fans can also listen in to live conversations between drivers and pit crews, live radio broadcasts, the officials’ channel, and the ability to scan in-car radio channels, giving fans a fully immersive, personalised race-day experience.

NASCAR is the second most popular professional sport in terms of television ratings inside the US, with 75 million fans worldwide. NASCAR.COM, the official Web site of NASCAR, has been managed and operated by Turner Sports since 2001.  With the new TrackPass application fans can now experience the drama of a race while on the move or access unique information at the race track.

 “Consumers are starting to demand the same experience on their mobile as watching TV at home and interacting with information on their PC,” said Scott Doyne, Turner Sports new media business manager.  “We want to be at the forefront of the convergence revolution and by partnering with weComm we have the technology infrastructure to deliver the optimum mobile user experience.”

The weComm powered services, which will be built on weComm’s wave3 On-Demand Mobile Application Platform™, will offer users the ability to download multiple high quality and rich interactive services within a single client application. The platform scales to support millions of users. weComm’s Managed Services division will run these applications on behalf of Turner.

“Turner has maintained its position as one of the most respected brands in broadcasting by engaging with its audiences through compelling content and the latest technology. With these new mobile portals, Turner is once again demonstrating that it understands how audiences want to consume content any time, anywhere,” said Ian Meakin, vice president of marketing and alliances, weComm.

weComm’s wave3 platform uses a client-server infrastructure to deliver high-quality, interactive mobile data services to mobile devices. The technology delivers content and applications to handsets on-demand, giving the richness and interactivity of an on-device application combined with the flexibility and freshness of an online service.

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About Turner  
Turner Sports New Media, the interactive division of Turner Sports, is the provider of a number of leading sports Web sites, including NASCAR.COM, PGATOUR.com and PGA.com, as well as the popular broadband channels TBS Hot Corner on MLB.com, TNT OverTime on NBA.com, NASCAR 24/7 on NASCAR.com and Live@ on PGATOUR.com.  The division also operates PlayON! Sports, providing broadband coverage of non-televised Olympic-type sports across a myriad of Web sites.
Turner Sports acquired all of NASCAR’s interactive rights in October 2000 and became the exclusive producer of NASCAR.COM in January 2001.  One of the fastest growing sports league Web sites, NASCAR.COM is home to broadband news coverage, fantasy games and the NASCAR.COM SuperStore.  The site consistently ranks among the top sports league sites and was named one of the best sports Web sites on the Internet by BusinessWeek (October 2005).

In 2006 NASCAR.COM was nominated for an Emmy® by the National Television Academy for its TrackPass RaceView application and was awarded an Emmy® in 2003 for TrackPass PitCommand.

Turner Sports, Inc. presents some of the best and most popular sporting events worldwide and is a leader in televised sports programming.  With events airing on TBS and TNT, Turner Sports’ line-up includes NASCAR and NASCAR.COM, the NBA, Major League Baseball (MLB),  professional golf, PGATour.com and PGA.com.

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.

About weComm
weComm is the world leader in interactive mobile data solutions with over 40 patents and patents-pending covering techniques for high performance and reliability over variable mobile networks. Its wave™ platform enables solutions for interactive mobile TV, media portals, sports applications, betting and gaming and financial trading applications. Applications include BSkyB’s Sky Anytime on Mobile, NOS, Cantor Mobile’s interactive financial and sports betting, eSpeed’s mobile Treasuries and Foreign Exchange.
 
Founded in 1999, weComm is headquartered in London and is privately held with investors Elderstreet and Frontiers Capital. For more information please visit www.wecomm.com.

CONTACTS:
Fiona Higgins, weComm
Office +44 (0)20 7448 7835/Mobile +44 (0)7824 592 297
fiona.higgins@wecomm.com

Tara August, Turner Sports
Office +1 (404) 827-2067
tara.august@turner.com