CREATORS ADDS STREAMING VIDEO TO SYNDICATE LINEUP

By: Jennie L. Phipps Streaming Video Company Sees Potential For Newspaper Sites



Creators Syndicate and Alternative Entertainment Network Inc.
(AENTV.com) have jointly launched a streaming video version of the
widely syndicated Marilyn Beck/Stacy Smith 'Hollywood Exclusive'
entertainment column.



The five-minute daily show is being offered free of charge to online
newspapers whose print editions already carry 'Hollywood Exclusive,'
as well as to major portals and other Web sites.



Richard S. Newcombe, founder and CEO of Creators, says, 'It's
experimental. We don't know how it's going to work, but we're very
optimistic and hopeful.'



The partnership came about because Glenn Schwartz, AENTV's vice
president of business development, is a long-time friend of Beck's,
who frequently does television appearances. Schwartz proposed the
idea to her; she was enthusiastic and persuaded Newcombe that it was
something he should try.



AENTV is a pioneer in the streaming video business. Its CEO and
president Drew Cummings, a former producer of 'Entertainment Tonight,'
launched the site in 1996 in the dawn of the streaming video era. 'I
was a geek before it was fashionable,' he says. The site started with
content to which Cummings already owned the rights - in particular a
series of shows that he produced about the making of such movies as
'The Terminator' and 'RoboCop.'



A year ago iNEXTV Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Ampex Corp., a
video technology company, bought a majority interest in AENTV. Cummings
and Schwartz stayed on. One of the things that they got in the bargain
was $1.5 million to open a state-of-the-art digital media center. The
center has production stages, digital postproduction suites, virtual
sets and design technology, as well as video compression and streaming
facilities. It claims to be the only facility of its type in Los Angeles.



The company has since moved nearly completely away from syndicating old
content to creating and syndicating new - much of it based on
entertainment news. It has deals with The Hollywood Reporter and
Billboard. (Both are sister magazines of E&P.)



It produces, 'The Hollywood Reporter Minutes,' a daily online entertainment
news program, featuring breaking stories, interviews, information and
remote segments from the location shoots of film and television projects
around the world.



And it offers 'Billboard Minutes,' a daily five-minute online streaming
video about musicians, tours, and other information for music fans.



Cummings says the company is developing more and more original content.
For instance, 'The Garage Sale,' which debuts Aug. 1, will feature a
series of shorts shot in the garages of celebrities. In the first episode,
Dom DeLuise talks about the saucepan he's selling in which he likes to
cook chicken and garlic. Viewers can click to bid, with money going to
the star's favorite charity.



Other garage sales lined up to be featured include R&B singer Brian
McKnight who will auction off a bass guitar; Dick Van Patten of 'Eight
Is Enough' fame selling autographed warm-up suits; and Justin Berfield
of 'Malcolm in the Middle' is auctioning off his bicycle.



Schwartz is also exploring the possibility of doing a video version of
'Dear Ann Landers,' whose column also is distributed by Creators
Syndicate, although Newcombe doesn't think camera-shy Landers will be
persuaded.



Schwartz says newspapers need streaming video because it can do for the
industry what MTV did for the music business - put faces to content and
increase sales. 'Newspapers are a business about people and how they
express themselves. Now for the first time we'll be able to see the
writers and that will enhance the experience,' he contends.



AENTV, which Cummings says has been in the black for three years, makes
its money from its relationships with DoubleClick and 24/7 Media. At
least initially, that will be the source of revenue for the Creators/AENTV partnership.