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WirelessDevNet.com Press Release
TV Guide Mobile Entertainment and 4INFO Partner to Bring TV Listings to Cell Phones
LOS ANGELES--Aug. 23, 2006--TV Guide Mobile Entertainment, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. (NASDAQ:GMST), a leading media, entertainment and technology company, and 4INFO, Inc., the leading mobile search, discovery, and delivery service, announced today that they have partnered to bring TV listings direct to cell phones. Resulting from this partnership and available immediately, cell phone users will now have the ability to quickly search for channel listings, specific television programming listings, and time-based programming from any mobile phone via SMS or WAP. The service is available to all mobile phone users regardless of carrier, and will allow TV fans to easily locate air dates, times, and channels for their favorite programming while out of town, or just on the go.
"At TV Guide(R), we understand just how passionate fans are about their television shows," said Rich Cusick, senior vice president and general manager, Digital Media, Gemstar-TV Guide International. "With this new listings offering, TV Guide and 4INFO are providing consumers unprecedented ease of access to the information they want and need about their favorite shows, wherever and whenever. 4INFO is revolutionizing the feature set available to cell phone users and is an ideal partner to help extend the reach of the TV Guide brand in the increasingly popular wireless content market."
"We are delighted to partner with TV Guide and deliver their content over our powerful and intuitive mobile search platform," stated Zaw Thet, CEO of 4INFO, Inc. "With over 200 million mobile phone users in the market, and 98 percent of the US watching television, there is a growing demand for entertainment-driven information while on the go. While bringing an interactive search service to viewers, we also create a new advertising medium for show promotion and targeted relationship marketing."
The TV Guide mobile product allows viewers to look up television channels and show times based on regional or local service providers. The reply to an initial query uses 4INFO's menu-based system to help a user select from a list of television service providers generated by the initial stated location. This location is then used as a default for subsequent searches. Once a provider has been selected, program matches are returned with airdate and channel. Specific programs can be searched further to locate future airdates. For channel searches, the local channel number is displayed for a given call sign and location.
Viewers can send a text message to 4INFO (44636) or search on 4INFO's WAP site (http://wap.4INFO.net) by using the "tv" indicator and the following syntax:
For television show time and channel information, use:
"tv" + SHOW + LOCATION (city or Zip)
Example query: "tv project runway 94107"
Example result:
Project Runway
08/12, 1:30AM BRAVO 48
08/12, 2:30AM BRAVO 48
08/12, 3:30AM BRAVO 48
08/12, 4PM BRAVO 48
08/12, 5PM BRAVO 48
To identify a channel number for a particular network, use:
"tv" + NETWORK SIGN + LOCATION (city or Zip)
Example query: "tv cbs 94107"
Example result:
Comcast Cable:
KPIX 5
KPIX-DT 705
Direct Digital St. Francis Place-San Fra:
KPIX 5
About Gemstar-TV Guide
Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. (the "Company") (NASDAQ: GMST) is a leading media, entertainment and technology company that develops, licenses, markets and distributes technologies, products and services targeted at the television guidance and entertainment needs of consumers worldwide. The Company's businesses include: television media and publishing properties; interactive program guide services and products; and technology and intellectual property licensing. Additional information about the Company can be found at www.gemstartvguide.com.
About 4INFO
4INFO, Inc. (www.4INFO.net), the leading mobile search service, enables the search, discovery, and delivery of information and content to a mobile phone. 4INFO's comprehensive suite of mobile services (Text Message Search to 44636, Mobile Web at http://wap.4INFO.net, and Text Alerts) provides access to business listings, sports scores, fantasy sports stats, weather, flight information, movie times, horoscopes, hotspot locations, news, stock quotes, hotel reservations, package tracking, and mobile downloads. The services are available free of charge to users on all major U.S. carriers. 4INFO's investment partners include U.S. Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Gannett Company, Inc. 4INFO is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.
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