WABC-TV and 7Online.com Offering Live Video Stream of New York City's Ceremony Commemorating the Fifth Anniversary of the September 11 Terror Attacks

WABC-TV and 7Online.com Offering Live Video Stream of New York City's Ceremony Commemorating the Fifth Anniversary of the September 11 Terror Attacks

The most-watched TV station in the U.S. partners with WorldNow to make this solemn moment available to its viewers everywhere

NEW YORK, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- For a stunned nation, it may be hard to believe that it's been five years since the horrific events of September 11, 2001. For ABC affiliate WABC-TV in New York City, it's not just a moment in history but also a day of personal loss and immense professional challenges. On that day, WABC-TV engineer Don DiFranco was working atop the World Trade Center. He lost his life in the attacks. Several of the station's correspondents had to scramble for cover as the trade center towers collapsed.

On September 11, 2006, WABC will mark the fifth anniversary of 9/11 with special, live coverage. It begins at 5:00 a.m., when anchors Lori Stokes and Steve Bartlestein present "Eyewitness News This Morning," from Ground Zero. Eyewitness News anchors Bill Ritter and Liz Cho will then anchor the station's live coverage of New York City's official ceremony commemorating the day, starting at 8:00 a.m.

With technology powered by WABC's partner, WorldNow, the station will offer that moving ceremony to its millions of viewers via streaming video on its Web site, 7Online.com.

Much has changed in the years since September 11th, including online technology. On the day of the attacks, 7Online.com offered streaming video to viewers desperate for information, but it was a world in which most people were connecting to that video with 28k dial-up connections. The images were small, and often grainy. Still, that day the Web site served thousands, even tens of thousands of streams at any given moment.

Today, with WorldNow's cutting-edge streaming-video technology, the site is better prepared than ever to share the day's events with its viewers, the vast majority of them accessing it via broadband connection. Because the anniversary events fall on a work day, the station expects many viewers will tune in from their computers at the office, rather than their televisions at home.

"We are very pleased we can connect people with this important moment, even if they can't be near their TV set," says Dave Davis, President and General Manager of WABC-TV. "This streaming video technology gives us a very effective way to carry out our mission of offering the best local news to our viewers, wherever they are when news happens."

7Online.com's special live stream will be accessible through the site's home page, and will be showcased on a special section of the Web site dedicated specifically to the 9/11 video stream. In addition, 7Online.com offers archived video footage of the station's coverage from September 11, 2001, as well as the latest reports from Ground Zero.

"The Web has a unique power to bring people together in shared experience, and this 9/11 anniversary coverage is a prime example," says Gary Gannaway, President and CEO of WorldNow. "We're honored that our streaming video technology will enable WABC to share its insightful local coverage with a vast international audience."

About WABC

WABC-TV is licensed in New York City to ABC7. It began operating on August 10, 1948, and celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1998. ABC7 is owned by the American Broadcasting Company, Inc. The Walt Disney Company owns ABC, Inc. Over a four-week period, WABC-TV is viewed in over 6.4 million TV households.

About WorldNow

WorldNow, a New York based technology and sales company, provides a comprehensive suite of online revenue solutions to over 280 local broadcasters, newspapers and cable providers. WorldNow enables media companies to build new businesses on the Internet through five core products including a proprietary streaming video solution, Web site publishing platform, online automotive classifieds, local ad sales, and a national advertising consortium known as the Local Media Network (LMN). Current WorldNow customers include Cox, Dispatch, Fisher, Gray, LIN Television, Media General, Meredith, Raycom Media, The New York Times, Time Warner Cable, Tribune, and Young. For more information about our company, please visit, http://www.worldnow.com/ and http://www.localmedianetwork.com/.

Source: WorldNow

CONTACT: Alison Hill, CurrentPR, +1-714-444-9731, ext. 201,
Alison@currentpr.com, for WorldNow

Web site: http://www.worldnow.com/
http://www.7online.com/
http://www.localmedianetwork.com/

-------
Profile: intent