Intercast Networks Expands Kazam Video Service to Universities Across the US

Intercast Networks Expands Kazam Video Service to Universities Across the US

Kazam Beta Version Includes Even More Major Media Brands, a New Ad Based Monetization Model and an Improved User Interface

NEW YORK, October 7/PRNewswire/ -- Intercast Networks, the pioneer in personalized video delivery to storage, announces the expansion of its free Kazam video service to a select number of US university campuses with more to follow in the coming weeks.

Following a successful spring semester alpha trial at Columbia and Purdue University, in which students validated the service, Kazam has redesigned the UI based on student's feedback and partnered with many new content providers to create a channel lineup that specifically caters to the student audience. The beta service will be available via the next-generation Internet2 Network for Internet2 university members that want to participate in the service. The network provides advanced IP multicast capabilities and connects over 50,000 U.S. research and education institutions today.

In addition Kazam now provides targeted and dynamic ad serving from storage capabilities to allow for the monetization of video content in online and offline viewing mode. Kazam's ad platform is integrated with DoubleClick DART Enterprise for campaign management, ad trafficking, ad tracking and reporting.

Kazam offers students access to a well rounded content offering appealing especially to the student demographic. Students can enjoy premium video content from several major media brands, (including Sports Illustrated and many more) some of which is not generally offered over the open internet. Added to the mix are some great online originals and programming from independent production companies including live concerts from Baeble Music, web series from My Damn Channel, HD shows from On Networks, various shows from Revision3, and even human rights documentaries from WITNESS. (For a complete listing of all the media brands and programming available on Kazam please visit http://www.kazam.com)

Kazam allows content providers to test the impact of new video delivery technologies in a walled garden and early adopter environment, which does not interfere with their traditional business models. Advertisers are able to test Kazam's targeted and dynamic ad serving from storage technology in the most sought after demographic (18-24) market segment and experiment with a wide variety of ad formats, including high-definition, full screen interactive video ads, to see how they resonate among the student audience. Several leading ad agencies such as Moxie Interactive of the Publicis Groupe, MPG and others have agreed to evaluate Kazam's targeted and dynamic advertising from storage capabilities and are publishing video campaigns from some of their major brands.

"HD video is a strong differentiator for us and current Internet streaming technologies are still struggling to support these bandwidth intensive video formats. We are committed to distributing TV shows across premium platforms that offer the best viewer experience," said Jen Grogono, Chief Content Officer of ON Networks. "The Kazam Video Service and its multicast delivery technology does just that by delivering our HD programming most efficiently without compromising the video quality and improving the way students find and enjoy fresh, original programming without draining the resources of their campus IT networks."

Rob Barnett, Founder & CEO of My Damn Channel said, "Kazam gave My Damn Channel a unique way to disrupt America's finest college campuses with our twisted curriculum. We're offering up Harry Shearer's "Found Objects," our web phenom, "You Suck at Photoshop," our evil soap opera "Horrible People" and the 2008 Webby Award winner for Best Comedy Series, "Wainy Days."

Tim Hanlon, Executive Vice President, Publicis Groupe's futures unit Denuo added: "Ad serving from storage is one of the emerging technologies in our space. Kazam's implementation allows for the dynamic serving of targeted ads from storage even when the consumer is offline. All ads are already present on the consumer's storage and are instantly retrievable for display in the highest video quality. Every user action is captured on Kazam's video platform which allows us to determine ad relevance and interaction on a per user basis and to effectively measure campaign results."

"Kazam's ability to interact with storage enabled devices and to deliver ads in an interactive and high quality manner offers an innovative approach to monetize the available storage capacity of consumer devices by matching content with targeted and dynamic ads from storage," explains Mitch Oscar, Executive Vice President at OMD's Televisual applications unit. "Satcasters and most movie services cannot track consumption and user behavior patterns as they lack a feedback channel to offer full VOD services. However, Kazam's underlying technology provides valuable data to accurately measure consumer reaction," continues Oscar, "On the advertising side traditional push marketing campaigns are not always the most effective way to reach the college market and Kazam provides a fresh approach to penetrate this important demographic segment."

"In the current advertising environment it's essential to utilize new emerging media opportunities to help clients effectively connect with target audiences-and we're confident Kazam is a great example," said Daina Middleton, Senior Vice President at Moxie Interactive. "We're excited to utilize Kazam to roll out new, rich video campaigns specifically geared to the college demographic."

"Kazam is one of the first large scale video services to take advantage of the inherent IP multicast capabilities of the Internet2 Network, "said Rob Vietzke, Executive Director of network services for Internet2. "Through this beta service, university members can 'opt in' to Kazam's application to not only deliver a great service to their campuses, but also leverage the advanced features of their multicast-enabled networks. We are excited to see the future of video services unfold within the Internet2 community and support applications that will in the future, influence the way consumers make use of the Internet."

Noam Bardin, Intercast Networks' President and CEO, concluded: "I am extremely excited with the release of the newly improved Kazam video service. The new version includes lots of great content, a set of brand new features that significantly improve the user experience and offer users even more personalization possibilities. Content providers and advertisers partnering with Kazam can now test new ways to monetize their content and deliver it cost-effectively to the student market. Universities benefit from improved bandwidth efficiency due to Kazam's underlying multicast delivery technology and can pro-actively take a stand to discourage illegal file sharing by introducing legal video delivery services to their student body."

Schools at which Kazam will be available this fall include Columbia, Northwestern, Penn State, University of Alabama, UCLA, University of Delaware and others. For more information about Kazam please visit http://www.kazam.com

Intercast will present its VideoXpress delivery platform and Multicast-to-Storage technology at the upcoming Fall 2008 Internet2 Member Meeting on Oct 15th in New Orleans.

About Intercast Networks

Intercast's flexible video delivery platform provides network operators with scalable delivery, management and monetization of personalized video from storage. Based on Intercast's Multicast-to-Storage (M2S) technology this platform can be utilized to introduce a variety of profitable and bandwidth efficient video solutions over IP networks. Intercast's video platform is interoperable with a wide variety of storage equipped consumer devices and provides flexible business models for the monetization of video content. Intercast operates offices in the United States and Israel. For more information visit http://www.intercast.com

About Kazam

Kazam is a student internet TV and video service based on Intercast Network's VideoXpress platform. Currently Kazam is exclusively available to US students at selected universities connected to the Internet2 backbone. Via Kazam students get free access to premium cable content including hit shows from leading and independent content providers such as Showtime, Discovery, Sony Pictures Television, Sports Illustrated, Revision3 and more. Kazam allows content providers to test the impact of its new video delivery technology in a closed and early adopter environment, which does not interfere with their traditional business models. Advertisers are able to test Kazam's dynamic and targeted ad serving-from-storage technology in the most sought after demographic and experiment with a wide variety of ad formats, including high-definition video ads, to see how they resonate among consumers. By leveraging IP multicast Kazam is able to efficiently deliver large amounts of bandwidth intense video files to a large number of students without straining campus networks. Campus IT departments can improve overall network efficiency and utilization at no additional cost. For more information visit http://www.kazam.com

          Press Contact:       Intercast Networks Inc.     Adam Ehrlich     adam@intercast.com     Tel: +972-9-885-6485       Content Providers / Advertisers / Universities     Contact:     Kazam @ Intercast Networks Inc.     Linor Tal Levav     linor@intercast.com     Tel: +1-212-594-5610  

Source: Intercast Networks Inc.

Press Contact: Intercast Networks Inc., Adam Ehrlich, adam@intercast.com, Tel: +972-9-885-6485; Content Providers / Advertisers / Universities, Contact: Kazam @ Intercast Networks Inc., Linor Tal Levav, linor@intercast.com, Tel: +1-212-594-5610

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Profile: International Entertainment