SXSW Pacts With Blaze TV to Offer Global Audiences Top Musical Performances From SXSW 2007

SXSW Pacts With Blaze TV to Offer Global Audiences Top Musical Performances From SXSW 2007

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- For two decades its platform for breaking new acts like Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs and James Blunt has been a well-kept industry secret. That will all change at the 21st annual SXSW in the wake of a groundbreaking deal between America's biggest music festival and music/entertainment television producer Blaze TV to create a joint venture company, South By TV (SXTV), which will deliver the best performances from the March 2007 festival to a global audience. During last year's event, more than 1,400 bands played at 60 venues in downtown Austin, Texas.

Rather than shooting bands in less-than-ideal club settings where they normally play, SXTV will custom-build a venue where performances can be captured in multi-camera HD with 5.1 surround sound. U.S. television audiences will be able to see the best of them on CD USA, the weekly show that Blaze TV produces for DirecTV. London and Miami-based Zeal TV will handle international TV sales in all territories outside the U.S. Zeal already distributes the CD USA, CD UK and CD Live imprints to 97 countries on six continents. Pre-sales of SXTV content will commence this month at MIPCOM.

In addition to terrestrial, cable and satellite TV sales, the company plans to distribute SXSW band content via Internet, mobile phone and digital cinema. A "Best of SXSW 2007" DVD is also planned through Blaze TV's parent company Shout! Factory.

"Blaze and SXSW are a great match, with a shared vision for creating content of the highest calibre. Conor McAnally knows how to make great TV," stated Roland Swenson, managing director of SXSW.

"We are delighted to be part of SXSW, one of the world's truly great festivals," offered Blaze managing director Conor McAnally. "With the innovative production approach we will be taking, we are excited to be able to share the extraordinary performances which SXSW inspires with a worldwide audience."

About SXSW

The SXSW Music and Media Conference showcases hundreds of musical acts from around the globe on over 50 states in downtown Austin. SXSW is the largest single music festival in the U.S., attended by record company and music media executives from all over the world, thus giving attending acts an unparalleled, showcase platform. By day, conference registrants do business in the SXSW Trade Show in the Austin Convention Center and partake of a full agenda of informative, provocative panel discussions featuring hundreds of speakers of international stature. SXSW 2007 will take place March 14-18, 2007. For more information, visit http://2007.sxsw.com/music.

About Blaze TV

Blaze TV was founded in the UK in 1999 to create, produce and market music and entertainment programming to a range of broadcasters throughout the world. Its first major project was CD UK, a live weekly hour-long popular music show which has aired for almost 400 episodes. Blaze opened a Los Angeles office in 2005 and began to produce CD USA for DirecTV in January 2006. The show is now on-air weekly in nearly 100 countries. Working with artists as diverse as U2, Mariah Carey, Eminem, Madonna and Metallica, Blaze TV has produced major specials, including a two-hour concert and live Q&A session surrounding the release of David Bowie's Reality album. Under the guidance of producer/director Conor McAnally, Blaze TV has won 22 major awards to date, including five British Academy Awards and four Royal Television Society Awards.

Source: Blaze TV; SXSW

CONTACT: Eric Green, +1-310-248-6150, egreen@bwr-la.com, or Dvora Vener
Englefield, +1-310-248-6161, dvener@bwr-la.com, both for Blaze TV and SXSW

Web site: http://2007.sxsw.com/music

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