Redwood City, Calif. - November 21, 2006 Portugal Telecom has partnered with Exent Technologies, the leading global market solutions provider for broadband-based monetization of PC and video games, to launch free branded games on the Sapo.pt Games-on-Demand (GoD) portal.
The Sapo.pt branded game, Mahjong Artifacts (published by Alawar), will be offered for free to all broadband users in Portugal over a month long period. The use of branded games is a move by Portugal Telecom and Exent to promote combined digital distribution and in-game advertisement models as well as the Portugal Telecom Games-on-Demand offering. Future plans by Portugal Telecom and Exent call for an offer constituting a package of free content subsidized by in-game advertising, with an upsell message for premium packages. This follows the cable-TV model for movies, offering bundled free ad-supported channels and premium ad-free channels.
"The cable television model has been proven effective in every major market," said Zvi Levgoren, CEO, Exent Technologies. "Free content is the best way to entice new users and grow a provider’s customer base. In-game advertising by Exent allows companies to offer high-quality content for free while enabling new revenue streams at no cost to consumers, and preserving a premium up-sell opportunity for better advertising-free content."
"We are excited to explore the synergy between free offerings and paid services," said Abilio Martins, Director of Sapo.pt, Portugal Telecom. "Exent’s ability to embed advertising in any PC game and change it on the fly is truly a unique value proposition. We look forward to working with our advertising partners to promote their products through our free video games offerings."
Exent’s AdMuse™ product is the only solution in the market that can enable such models. Free, ad-supported online offerings include, by nature, older, catalog titles. The only solution in the market today that supports in-game advertising into catalog games is AdMuse™.
About Exent
Exent is the leading global market solutions provider for broadband-based monetization of PC and video games. Exent delivers technologies and products for game publishers, broadband service providers, advertising agencies, consumer electronics manufacturers, media companies, brand owners, consumer portals, retailers and others.
Exent's product line supports multiple solutions, including digital distribution of video games, cross-platform enablers, in-game advertising and community building solutions. Exent's digital distribution solutions supports both 2' and 10' environment and all standard business models - ad-based, purchase, subscription, rental, and try-before-you-buy, utilizing its leading streaming and DRM platform.
Among the companies using Exent's technologies and services are Comcast, Verizon, Intel, Turner Broadcasting, Bell Canada, RCN, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Portugal Telecom, KPN, Telstra and others.
Exent's major shareholders include Intel Capital, Cisco, Time Warner, Comcast, New Enterprise Associates, Concord Ventures, Avansis and Geyser.
For more information please visit us at: www.exent.com.
About Portugal Telecom
Portugal Telecom is the leading telecommunications and multimedia services provider in Portugal, it offers a full range of mobile services, multimedia services (such as pay TV, Internet access and portal services), data and business solutions (such as data communications, business-to-business e-commerce and data and networking solutions), and wireline telephone services for retail and wholesale customers.
For more information please visit us at: www.telecom.pt.
