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Digital Orchid to Deliver Real-Time Wireless Content to NASCAR Fans


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NASCAR.COM TO GO Will Offer Live Coverage of 2005 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series to Wireless Subscribers

SAN DIEGO, CA, 02/16/2005 -- Digital Orchid, the industry’s leading innovator in the development, management, and distribution of branded real-time wireless applications, today announced a partnership with NASCAR.COM, the premier destination for NASCAR fans and exclusive NASCAR application developer, to launch several new real-time wireless products for the 2005 NASCAR season. Together, NASCAR.COM and Digital Orchid will enable over 75 million NASCAR fans to gain access to the NASCAR.COM TO GO application via a broad suite of handsets.

As a part of the wireless lineup, NASCAR.COM will provide access to its Emmy award-winning PitCommand application, produced in cooperation with Sportvision, which uses in-car telemetry to track the position of the entire field of NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series drivers in real-time as they compete during a race. Digital Orchid is forecasting as many as 20 million content downloads for 2005, with NASCAR.COM TO GO content currently available on over 100 handsets in the U.S.

“Our partnership with Digital Orchid enables us to deliver live NASCAR.COM content anytime, anywhere, ensuring that NASCAR fans will never have to miss any of the action of one of today’s most exciting spectator sports,” said Scott Bailey, Vice President and general manager of NASCAR.COM.

NASCAR.COM TO GO is a subscription service that gives members access to view and share a variety of real-time NASCAR.COM content via their wireless devices. Subscribers receive breaking news and features from NASCAR.COM’s reporters, qualifying and race results, series standings, driver updates, as well as NASCAR.COM’s live timing and scoring leaderboard service.

Fans will get a firsthand look at their favorite drivers’ positions on the track, lap count and time behind the leader, beginning with NASCAR.COM TO GO’s live coverage of the Daytona 500 on February 20, 2005. PitCommand is the first wireless application to offer NASCAR fans access to real-time race information using telemetry and GPS technology delivered directly to the cellular handset. In addition, NASCAR.COM TO GO will provide fans with exclusive NASCAR video and audio clip highlights, which can be downloaded to video and audio capable handsets.

“Our goal at Digital Orchid has always been to provide NASCAR content to all handsets and carriers so that we can offer the broadest possible coverage to the NASCAR community,” stated Chris Duggan, President for Digital Orchid. “As the exclusive application developer for NASCAR.COM, we have an opportunity to provide fans with the most current and up to date information for one of the largest events in sports.”

Services available to fans will include the award-winning NASCAR.COM TO GO and PitCommand™ applications, news and commentary, wallpapers and a wireless messaging alert service that provides subscribers breaking news and race results.

NASCAR.COM garnered record-breaking numbers, with an average of 3.8 million unique users (Nielsen Net Ratings) during its coverage of NASCAR’s Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup, September through November 2004. This number represents a 16% increase from the site’s coverage during that same time frame in 2003 and is the highest monthly total for that time period since NASCAR.COM’s inception in 2001, again positioning NASCAR.COM as an industry leader for interactive sports coverage. Digital Orchid, rolling out other innovative wireless products this year, expects to set record breaking downloads in both Q1 and Q2 of its fiscal year.

About Digital Orchid:

Digital Orchid, a San Diego-based company, provides exclusive wireless branded applications to the global wireless community. Digital Orchid leverages its patent pending platforms to distribute real-time dynamic and interactive applications accessible through all new handsets. Based on exclusive content agreements and experience with all major carriers. Digital Orchid’s partners include major brands in sports, entertainment, broadcast media and gaming. For further information, please visit www.digitalorchid.com.

About NASCAR.COM

Turner Sports Interactive acquired all of NASCAR’s interactive rights in October 2000 and became the exclusive producer of NASCAR.COM in January 2001. NASCAR.COM is one of the fastest growing sports sites on the Web, consistently ranking among the top three sport sites on the Internet. In 2003, NASCAR.COM was awarded an Emmy® by the National Television Academy for its PitCommand application. Along with NASCAR.COM, Turner Sports Interactive is the exclusive producer of PGA.com. They acquired the PGA’s interactive rights in June 2002 and immediately assumed exclusive production of PGA.com. Turner sports, Inc., a Time Warner company, presents some of the best and most popular sporting events worldwide and is a leader in televised sports programming. With events airing on three networks -- TBS, TNT and Turner South -- Turner Sports’ line-up includes the NBA, NASCAR and NASCAR.COM, Major League Baseball, Atlanta Thrashers hockey, Atlanta Hawks basketball, college football, professional golf and PGA.com.



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