Synacor Signs Industry’s First Deal With Walt Disney Internet Group To Sublicencse Multiple Brands For Subscription Online Programming To Tier 2 Internet Access Providers

Synacor’s Platform Enables ISPs, MSOs and Telcos to Bundle Premium Content with Connectivity

March 4th 2003

BUFFALO, March 4, 2003 – Synacor today announced that it has signed the industry’s first deal with Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) to sublicense multiple brands of WDIG’s subscription online programming to Tier 2 Internet access providers, enabling them to bundle premium content with connectivity. Synacor, which builds technology and services that bring cable TV-like premium services to both narrow- and broadband providers, will sublicense select content from Disney Online kids, ABCNEWS.com, FamilyFun.com and ESPN.com to Tier 2 providers. It also has rights to resell ESPN Insider and Disney’s Blast, a subscription service for kids, to its customers. FairPoint Communications and Susquehanna Communications will be the first Synacor customers to begin offering WDIG subscription products to their users in early March and early April, respectively.

WDIG, ABC and ESPN will continue direct licensing to all providers. Tier 2 sublicense rights for ESPN.com include several radio shows and three articles per day.

“Internet access providers now have a real opportunity to utilize premium content to deliver a great user experience, accelerate adoption and increase revenue per customer,” said Ron Frankel, president and CEO of Synacor. “As the first company to have secured the rights to resell WDIG’s subscription content, Synacor is in a great position to help its customers make this strategic shift.”

“Tapping into Synacor’s customer base will help us expand our distribution and make WDIG content readily accessible to an even wider audience,” said Larry Shapiro, executive vice president, business development and operations for WDIG. “It is an especially interesting time in the development of broadband, and our line-up of premium content, across several strong brands, will be an asset to ISPs in building broadband subscriptions.”

Synacor’s Portelus™ platform delivers aggregated premium content and value-added services, a robust provisioning engine, and unified back end within a customizable portal framework. This reseller model creates a systemic shift in the online content sales market by allowing ISPs, MSOs and telcos to include content subscriptions as part of their monthly service billing.

The Online Publishers Association reports that U.S. consumers spent $975 million for online content in the first nine months of 2002, up 125 percent from the year prior. Jupiter predicts that the paid content market will grow to $5.8 billion by 2006.

“Synacor’s Portelus solution provides FairPoint Communications with a differentiated offering in the Internet product space. We feel that the Synacor product suite may not only increase our portfolio profitability, but will also help to enrich our customers’ online experience,” said Stephen Yusko, Vice President of Marketing & Business Development at FairPoint Communications, Inc.

About Synacor
Synacor (www.synacor.com) brings the cable television model to the Internet by enabling access providers to offer basic and premium content subscription packages to their customers in a compelling and easy-to-use manner. The company’s end-to-end solution helps narrowband, broadband and wireless access providers to quickly deploy these value-added services and recognize an immediate positive impact on customer retention and revenues per subscriber. Synacor’s Portelus platform delivers the combined strength of a flexible, brandable Internet portal framework, a robust provisioning engine, a unified back end, and a menu of standard and premium content from the industry’s top providers. With offices in Buffalo, New York and Los Angeles, Synacor powers a national network of customers.

About Walt Disney Internet Group
Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) provides strategic leadership and operational management for The Walt Disney Company’s Internet properties including category leaders Disney.com, ESPN.com and ABCNews.com. WDIG has led the way in developing new forms of interactive content, such as its Enhanced TV service which showcases the convergence of video and interactive programming, and is a market leader in developing and distributing entertainment and informational content to new platforms. Through relationships with some of the world’s largest wireless carriers, WDIG distributes content and services to wireless users under the Disney, ESPN and ABC brands. Steve Wadsworth is president of WDIG, which is headquartered in North Hollywood and has operations in Seattle, New York, Orlando, Fla., Tokyo and London.