WRAL-TV Gives Viewers Wireless Access to Up-to-the-Minute News, Weather and Traffic

WRAL’s service marks the first time Sprint PCS has worked with a regional broadcaster

Raleigh, N.C. and Atlanta, Ga., (December 20, 2004) -- WRAL-TV, a leader in television news and HDTV technology, will provide news, weather and other information on Sprint PCS Vision^SM mobile phones beginning today. The new service allows Sprint PCS customers to download up-to-the-minute news stories, pictures, traffic camera images, weather forecasts, Doppler radar and severe weather warnings to their mobile phones. The News Over Wireless "NOW"© application was designed for WRAL by sister company, DTV Plus, with wireless application expertise from Air2Web.

With the launch of the new wireless application WRAL is the first local TV station in the country to offer up-to-the-minute news, traffic and weather on mobile phones. The new service follows a tradition of firsts: WRAL was one of the first television stations in the country to offer news via the Web, and the first station in the world to construct a high-definition TV news gathering operation.

"We view this as WRAL's third screen," said Sam Matheny, vice president and general manager of DTV Plus. "First is the television screen with analog and digital broadcasts, next the computer screen with WRAL.com, and now the mobile phone has become an important way to give viewers valuable information while on the go."

"This new mobile phone application gives us yet another way to better serve the public," said Jim Hefner, vice president and general manager of WRAL-TV, "and makes sense in an increasingly wireless world."

NOW is designed for use on J2ME-enabled devices and is a flexible application. The NOW application is template and menu driven and can serve a wide variety of content. Additionally, new and different categories of content can be added on the fly. DTV Plus thoroughly researched the market and developed the NOW application as an excellent way to enable media outlets to reach an increasingly mobile audience. NOW also offers a recurring revenue stream to stations that are traditionally tied to advertising.

"The fact that DTV Plus and WRAL are using Air2Web to deliver their new service represents the sheer breadth and depth of the product," said Len Emmick, vice president of sales for Air2Web. "WRAL is on the cutting edge of bringing localized content to a wireless micro-economy, and it is indicative of the growing consumption of these types of products and services by the everyday cell phone user."

"One of the key reasons DTV Plus chose Air2Web was their ability to assist us in wirelessly delivering content out to any device, over any network, and to any carrier," said Matheny. "And we are delighted to initially deploy our service with Sprint, a visionary leader in mobile wireless data services."

Sprint PCS Vision customers can register for WRAL's news and information application by visiting mobile.wral.com, Sprint.com, or they can download the application from the Download menu on their handset. The monthly fee is $3.99 for unlimited access to the service. This is in addition to the subscribers' monthly Vision data plan.

"WRAL's innovative history and our own legacy of exploring new communications ground prompted us to enter into this agreement," said John Burris, director of wireless data services, Sprint. "This is another opportunity for us to enhance and expand our customers' wireless experience."

Earl Struble, Sprint's Triangle-area sales director, added: "The rollout of the WRAL news service follows six months of intense planning, interaction and development. This teamwork has led to a new product that offers our customers an easy and timely application that is fun to use."