Distribution Deal with Yahoo! for Sports Content
365 Corporation PLC
17 March 2000
365 Corporation and Yahoo! agree distribution deal
for English, Spanish and French sports content
365 Corporation plc ('365') announces that agreement has been reached for it
to supply multi-sports, multi-lingual content to Yahoo!.
This means that users of Yahoo! UK and Ireland's sports service will be able
to access 365 content covering football (sourced from football365.com), rugby
(planet-rugby.com), motorsport (planet-F1.com), cricket (cricketline.com), and
horse racing (racetips.com). English speaking Yahoo! users will thus be able
to access breaking news, live match commentaries, profiles, results and
statistics.
In addition to the agreement covering English language content, 365 will also
supply Yahoo! with football and rugby content in French and Spanish. This will
be provided by 365's existing services in those languages, Football365 France
(football365.fr), Rugby365 France (rugby365.fr), Futbol 365 (futbol365.com),
Rugby 365 Espanol (espanol.rugby365.com)
The deals mean that 365's unique, high quality, content will be made available
to Yahoo!'s vast European audience. During the month of December 1999, Yahoo!
Europe had 18 million unique users.
Commenting on this key step in 365's strategy of providing best of class
content to a global audience, Dan Thompson, CEO of 365 Corporation plc, said:
'We are delighted to be working with Yahoo! in a mutually beneficial
relationship. Yahoo!'s users can now enjoy our great content and the 365
network of sites will benefit from increased traffic.'
Enquiries:
365 Corporation plc Tel: 0171 505 7800
Dan Thompson, Chief Executive Officer
Simon Morris, Marketing Director www.365corp.com
Financial Dynamics Tel: 0171 831 3113
Giles Sanderson
Fiona Meiklejohn
NOTES FOR EDITORS
365 Corporation plc
CURRENT CONTENT AND SERVICE OFFERINGS
Consumer
+ Sport
Football -www.football365.com and www.futbol365.com and www.football365.fr
Football content is provided on three web sites, each in a different language.
The English language site is branded Football365 and is one of the leading
football web sites in the world. Futbol365 is a Spanish language web site. In
1999 365 acquired C-Sports Communication SA, the creators of cfoot.com, a
leading French football web site, now branded www.football365.fr.
Football content is also being leveraged on a cross platform basis via
TalkFootball365, the recently launched telephone and Internet service
(www.talkfootball365.com). This service allows users to leave voice messages
for other users to respond to, to discuss football with other users and to
hear their views on news items provided from the Football365 website, which
may include the personal views of Danny Kelly and Andy Gray.
Cricket - www.cricinfo365.com
Through its joint venture with CricInfo (one of the world's largest single
sports web sites), 365 produces a daily e-mail publication - CricInfo365.
www.cricketline.com
A leading site for International cricket boasting the complete scorecards of
every Test match ever played and an exclusive column from South African legend
Allan Donald
Rugby - www.rugby365.com
Rugby365 was launched in August 1999, in anticipation of the Rugby World Cup.
The service is based in South Africa and produced in four language versions
(English, French, Spanish and Afrikaans). Contributors to Rugby365 are some
of the top rugby players in the world. During the 1999 Rugby World Cup,
Rugby365 partnered with ITV to produce their Rugby World Cup site. 365
established a North American presence in December 1999 with the acquisition of
e-Merchants Inc. and the website, www.rugbyrugby.com.
www.planet-rugby.com
A market leading online rugby resource including breaking news, unique
statistics and world class contributors such as Stephen Jones and Michael
Lynagh
Racetips: www.racetips.com.
A site dedicated to Horse Racing giving the inside track on news, form and the
horses to follow.
Planet F1: www.planet-f1.com
Unique resource for the world of Formula 1 featuring news, features and a
searchable archive of every race in F1 history.
Sportszine UK: www.sportszine.co.uk
A complete guide to sport on the Internet through a searchable database of
over 40,000 individually reviewed websites.
Sportonair.com: www.sportonair.com
The UK's first dedicated sports audio website with hourly news, features and
interviews.
+ Entertainment
Music - www.music365.com
Music365 was launched in November 1998 and provides reviews of albums and
singles, interviews with artists and personalities and topical stories. It
also provides an on-line chat forum for users to express their views on
current music issues. In addition, the web site offers on-line shopping
facilities for users to purchase concert tickets, CDs and videos. Music365
provides the content for the Freeserve Music channel and has an arrangement
with the BRITs to provide the official BRIT Awards' web site and online voting
facility.
Competitions - www.win365.co.uk
365 launched 'Win365' in September 1999, a cross-platform competition based
product.
Planet Trivia: www.planet-trivia.com
A network of live, multiplayer trivia games where users can compete in real
time against anyone else in the world on a variety of topics including
television, education, history, entertainment and sport and win prizes.
Television
Most recently the company created a new division, 365Television. The first
production, a documentary on boxer Mike Tyson's UK fight, was commissioned by
the BBC and recently aired on BBC Choice and BBC2.
+ Lifestyle
Companionship - www.personals365.com
The primary content in the lifestyle sector is companionship. 365's lifestyle
services provide the community forum for users to socialise with other people
or establish relationships. Historically these services have been phone-
based, but in October 1999, 365 launched, as part of its convergence strategy,
Personals365, an on-line companionship product, and more recently a multi-
platform product www.theswitch.co.uk.
Advisory services
365 has an agreement with Infogenie to provide telephone-based services to
users. 365 provides telephone lines and systems and Infogenie procures the
advisory services, currently for legal services and veterinary services.
Business
The Business Division provides communication services and Internet
applications to small and medium sized enterprises in the UK and Ireland. It
aims to provide a 'one stop shop' of communications services and Internet
applications to its customers. 365 currently provides voice and data access,
telephone systems, mobiles, Internet access and related hardware. In order to
work towards national coverage, 365 has formed equity joint ventures with 12
telecom systems dealers across the UK. Under these arrangements, 365
contributes its expertise and access to its customer service and billing
infrastructure, while the dealer contributes local sales and marketing
expertise. The existing customer base of the joint venture partners provides
the initial target for 365's marketing efforts.