Everyday is launched on Viasat's digital TV Platform The Internet portal Everyday.com will be launched on Viasat's digital TV platform as Everyday.TV. This means that all customers with Viasat's digital decoder will have access to a range of interactive services, such as e-mail, chat and SMS messaging capability. Hans-Holger Albrecht, President of Viasat Broadcasting as well as Chief Operating Officer and future President of Modern Times Group, to which Viasat belongs, commented, "We are convinced that we can replicate the success of the Everyday Internet portal on other interactive platforms. That is why we are launching the Everyday portal on Viasat's digital platform. Our objective is to create the most popular interactive television portal on the market." The model for this solution is British SkyTV's interactive portal within the framework for its digital television platform. Viasat has chosen the same operating system from OpenTV as SkyTV. Both sound quality and picture quality are improved using the Viasat digital television platform compared with the current analogue transmission. The launch will begin at the end of September, with sales of pre-packaged offers that include a satellite dish, a digital television decoder and a 12-month subscription on the premium package Viasat Guld (Viasat Gold Package) for SEK 2,998. In practice, this means that the satellite dish and the decoder from Viasat are free. This fall, the new digital television decoder will be distributed free of charge to all Viasat premium customers. About 350,000 premium customers in Sweden, Norway and Denmark will have received the digital decoder by April next year. These investments will be recouped within 2 to 3 years since equivalent amounts will be saved in transponder costs. The objective is to convert all of Viasat's analog satellite customers to digital customers. A launch in the Baltic countries will take place simultaneously. Everyday.TV is expected to be the leading interactive television portal in all of Viasat Broadcasting's geographic core areas. Some of the interactive services that will be gradually offered are: E-mail, chat, and SMS messaging Electronic program guides (EPG), including scheduling information for 56 channels Metro Newspaper Sports and weather Games E-commerce Interactive advertising Jørgen Madsen, President of Everyday.TV said, "Advertisers will also be able to combine advertising spots with infomericals on the digital platform." The digital decoder also provides a better selection of channels than current analogue subscribers have today. The film channels TV1000 and Cinema will be turned into six channels, which means that viewers will be better able to tune into movies when they want. A new service - "Goalshow" - will enable viewers to see a goal in Champions League matches even if they are tuned into a different match. The goals are shown with a 20-second delay. AGENCY.COM has been selected to develop the interactive solutions for Everyday.TV. For further information, please email info@sharedvalue.net or contact: Hans-Holger Albrecht, President of Viasat Broadcasting+44 (0) 1895 433 433 Pelle Törnberg, President of MTG +46-8-562 000 50. Matthew Hooper, Shared Value Limited +44 (0) 20 7321 5010 Modern Times Group MTG AB 'A' and 'B' shares are listed on the OM Stockholm Exchange's O list under the symbols MTGA and MTGB, and on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol MTGNY. ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/09/06/20000906BIT00800/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/09/06/20000906BIT00800/bit0002.pdf