Curtain Rises on LYCOS Cinema, First-Ever Social Network Platform to Watch & Chat In Real-Time, Building Community Around High-Quality Video Content

Curtain Rises on LYCOS Cinema, First-Ever Social Network Platform to Watch & Chat In Real-Time, Building Community Around High-Quality Video Content

LYCOS Proprietary Technology Provides New Platform for Consuming Video & Socializing Online

WALTHAM, Mass., Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- LYCOS, Inc. (http://www.lycos.com/), a leading community destination for high-quality broadband entertainment content, today unveiled the launch of LYCOS Cinema, the Web's first watch and chat video experience. With LYCOS Cinema, Web users can now talk at the movies, forever changing the way people consume and socialize around high quality video content online.

The 26 million visitors to LYCOS can now watch and chat with LYCOS Cinema's Screening Room platform, located at http://cinema.lycos.com/. LYCOS Cinema is the Internet's first video-based socialization product to combine various Web 2.0 applications into one platform, allowing multiple users to watch simultaneously and chat about video content in real-time.

LYCOS is first to market with its proprietary watch and chat technology, a patent-pending video platform which allows users to view and chat in synchronous real-time. Unlike other video sites, the watch and chat platform provides truly interactive, real-time, user-driven video viewing. Digital rights owners, artists and content managers can release content to a VIP or general audience with direct interaction, providing screening and sampling opportunities, marketing and promotion and innovative opportunities for new revenue streams. Content is securely wrapped in Microsoft's DRM technology provided by Microsoft's Windows Media Rights Manager, to protect artists' rights.

"Our goal is to give users a totally unique viewing experience of high- quality video content they cannot find anywhere else," said Brian Kalinowski, chief operating officer of LYCOS, Inc. "Viewing video online becomes much more engaging and enjoyable when you can create a social experience involving friends and family. With LYCOS Cinema, we move from the flat, disconnected world of Web 1.0 to an all new world of social interaction around online video, essentially the next evolution of chat."

LYCOS Cinema lets users host their own Screening Rooms, inviting others to watch high-quality video content, while the host of the room controls the video experience. Screening Room hosts can pause, rewind and fast-forward video streams, and most importantly, chat with other Screening Room viewers. Users can view profiles of other guests in the Screening Room audience and build buddy lists for future watch and chat sessions. Users may also congregate in virtual lobbies within the LYCOS Cinema environment, browsing lists of available screenings, conversing with other users with whom they can watch and chat. For added privacy, Screening Room hosts can password-protect screenings, making watch and chat sessions available by invitation only.

Future product enhancements will allow users to rate, review, post questions and recommend content. Additional features will enable independent film producers and high-quality content providers to upload videos while moderated chat capabilities make director, actor or subject expert chats a reality.

"LYCOS Cinema capitalizes on the convergence of the fastest-growing Web categories -- social networking and online video," Kalinowski added. "LYCOS Cinema presents film and television content owners with an innovative new way to bring content to a dynamic, targeted audience."

Multiple Films and Content Channels, and Growing

At launch, LYCOS Cinema users will have the ability to choose from many different genres of episodic television, film and video content, introducing classic libraries and cult favorites to entirely new audiences. Users coming to LYCOS Cinema at launch can view scores of high-quality films and broadcast video content including award-winning independent films, "The Champagne Club" and "Ants," contemporary underground cult films like, "Born 2B Gangsta," featuring Coolio and Ice-T, and classic cult films like, "Night of the Living Dead."

"User-generated content is very popular but it's also very difficult to monetize because advertisers are not necessarily willing to put advertising dollars against content they cannot control," Kalinowski explained. "Our focus continues to remain on high-quality, natural form licensed video content, and you will see continuous top-tier film and TV content announcements coming from LYCOS in the coming weeks."

LYCOS Cinema will evolve in partnership with content providers and consumers offering the following benefits:

* Film studios can leverage the proprietary watch and chat technology for
new promotions, distributions and focus group opportunities. For the
first time, movie producers and fan clubs can host online screenings
with live chat.
* Independent filmmakers will have a powerful, cost-effective, new
platform to introduce their work to millions of viewers. They can create
communities of like-minded fans on LYCOS Cinema.
* Advertisers can reach specific segments of consumers in the 18-35
demographic with sticky, compelling high-quality content and
applications, being able to monetize content that is not user-generated
in nature.

In the coming weeks, LYCOS will roll out additional platforms completing its suite of video offerings, including the new LYCOS TV, providing streaming channels of pre-programmed broadcast quality content, and LYCOS Video on Demand, allowing users to rent or purchase everything from Hollywood hits to long-tail, hard-to-find niche films.

LYCOS Cinema fully supports LYCOS's strategy to expand its products and services for broadband users seeking high-quality video content. Over the past two months, LYCOS has teamed with Blinkx to enhance its video search experience introducing a new video search engine, and launched a new broadband platform bringing a variety of high-quality content to the LYCOS audience, providing consumers broadband video programming and entertainment with the look and feel of TV.

About LYCOS, Inc.

LYCOS, Inc. (http://www.lycos.com/) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Daum Communications Corp., a leading Internet portal and e-commerce destination in Korea with a growing presence throughout the Asian markets. LYCOS, Inc. operates search and technology Web sites that foster online communities, including the new LYCOS Cinema, which combines community with high-quality broadband video content. Other LYCOS products and sites include LYCOS.com, Hotbot.com, Tripod.com, Angelfire.com, LYCOS Mail, LYCOS Phone, LYCOS Entertainment, LYCOS Music, LYCOS Games and LYCOS Planet. LYCOS was acquired by Korean Daum Communications Corp. in October 2004 and has its U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. Daum Communications Corp. is traded on the KOSDAQ: 035720, http://www.daum.net/.

Lycos(R) is a registered trademark of Lycos, Inc. All other product or service marks mentioned herein are those of Daum Communications Corp., Lycos, Inc. or their respective owners. All rights reserved.

Contacts:
Kathy O'Reilly Ross Levanto
Lycos, Inc. Schwartz Communications
781-370-2853 781-684-0770
Kathy.O'Reilly@lycos-inc.comRossL@schwartz-pr.com

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: LYCOS, Inc.

CONTACT: Kathy O'Reilly of Lycos, Inc., +1-781-370-2853,
Kathy.O'Reilly@lycos-inc.com; or Ross Levanto of Schwartz Communications,
+1-781-684-0770, RossL@schwartz-pr.com

Web site: http://www.lycos.com/
http://cinema.lycos.com/

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