BEIJING, March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Buoyed by the success of the
first Major League Baseball exhibition games in China, baseball fans in the
country will now be able to follow the game's brightest stars as they compete
in the United States via an agreement announced today between MLB Advanced
Media, LP (MLBAM) and BroadWebAsia Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: BWBA). MLBAM is
the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball and
operates the official league website at http://www.MLB.com as well as all
30 individual club sites. BroadWebAsia, established and chaired by Brad
Greenspan, the founder of MySpace, owns and operates six of the leading web
2.0 properties in China.
Under the terms of the agreement, BroadWebAsia, an official MLBAM Licensee
in China, will create and host a Major League Baseball-focused website in
simplified Chinese targeting the China market. The site,
http://www.major.tv/china, is being developed by BroadWebAsia's
Shanghai-based Hupo TV subsidiary (http://www.hupo.tv), and officially
launched in time for the MLB Opening Series in Japan on March 25th. This
year's Opening Series featured the defending World Champion Boston Red Sox
taking on the Oakland Athletics in Japan's Tokyo Dome on March 25th and 26th.
BroadWebAsia's MLB-focused China site will be in the simplified Chinese
Language, offering Chinese fans video highlights, scores, feature articles,
photos, up-to-date and historical statistics and a number of live baseball
games streamed directly to China via the Major.tv/China website. Leveraging
the popularity of Asian players such as Chien-Ming Wang, Ichiro Suzuki,
Chin-Lung Hu, Hong-Chi Kuo, Chan Ho Park and Daisuke Matsuzaka, the site will
promote baseball to the large Chinese audience. In addition to having all of
the content needed for baseball fans to follow the game,
http://www.major.tv/china will have online chats and other fan forums, a
special section teaching the China fan base the playing rules of baseball as
well as promoting and selling Major League Baseball branded merchandise
online.
"We are excited about our partnership with MLB Advanced Media," said Brad
Greenspan, Chairman of BroadWebAsia. "BroadWebAsia's cooperation with MLBAM
brings together in China two of the leading providers of rich media
entertainment, video streaming and next generation internet content. We hope
to use the large user base of the BroadWebAsia network in China to widen the
appeal of baseball in this exciting market and to create significant new
revenue opportunities for BroadWebAsia and MLBAM.
"This partnership with BroadWebAsia provides a very important Chinese
language footprint for the game in China's digital space," said Alex Pigeon,
Vice President of International, MLB Advanced Media. "The fans in China will
now have the ability to follow their favorite teams and players -- from
Opening Day to the World Series to the World Baseball Classic -- on a
technologically innovative platform and most importantly in their own
language."
Peter Schloss, Chief Executive Officer of BroadWebAsia, said, "The
overwhelming success of the two exhibition games recently played in Beijing
demonstrates the appeal of baseball in China. The launch of our MLB-focused
website in China will make the game more accessible, not only to
multi-national and Chinese advertisers, but also to the increasing number of
Chinese baseball fans at the grassroots level."
About MLB Advanced Media LP
Established in June 2000 following a unanimous vote by the 30 Major League
Baseball club owners to centralize all of Baseball's Internet operations, MLB
Advanced Media LP (MLBAM) is the interactive media and Internet company of
Major League Baseball. MLBAM manages the official league site,
http://www.mlb.com, and each of the 30 individual Club sites to create the
most comprehensive Major League Baseball resource on the Internet. MLB.com
offers fans the most complete baseball information on the Web, including
up-to-date statistics, game summaries, extensive historical information, and
exclusive features about Major League Baseball events and programs, including
online ticket sales, baseball merchandise, authenticated memorabilia and
collectibles, fantasy games, live and archived radio broadcasts of every game,
live and archived video webcasts of entire games, pitch-by-pitch enactment of
games, and hosted post-game video highlight shows. MLB.com offers more live
events on the Internet than any other website in the world.
About BroadWebAsia Inc.
Established in 2005, BroadWebAsia, Inc. (OTC: BWBA) is a fast growing and
diversified Internet company focused on Chinese online communities and digital
advertising. The company was started and is backed by Internet entrepreneur
and MySpace founder Brad Greenspan. The BroadWebAsia network is comprised of
Hupo TV (http://www.hupo.tv), Mofile (http://www.mofile.com), TYCYGames
(http://www.tycygames.com), 9e3.com (http://www.9e3.com), BBMAO
(http://www.bbmao.com), and ETE (http://www.ete.cn). By acquiring controlling
interests in 6 fast growing and well managed Chinese websites, BroadWebAsia
has built a powerful, synergistic network encompassing video entertainment,
social networking, and community search websites supported by a top online ad
sales and serving company in China. BroadWebAsia's highly scalable network
strategy allows for efficient cross marketing, cross advertising and cross
audience promotion opportunities. The BroadWebAsia Network reaches over 70
million monthly unique visitors, generating over 500 million monthly page
views.
About Hupo TV
Hupo TV (http://www.hupo.tv) is a subsidiary of BroadWebAsia and is based
in Shanghai, China. It operates the online video sharing site,
http://www.hupo.tv , which is a leading provider of proprietary video content
to Chinese Internet Users. As of March 2008, Hupo TV had more than 100 million
monthly video views.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the
meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995,
and includes statements relating to the ability of BroadWebAsia, such as the
ability improve efficiencies, improve customer service, drive cost savings and
competitive advantage. These statements are based on current expectations and
are subject to risks and uncertainties and changes in circumstances. There are
important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from
those anticipated in the forward looking statements including, among others:
the conditions of market, the continued ability to develop solutions, demand
for and market acceptance of new and existing services, development of new
functionalities which would allow companies to compete more effectively.
BroadWebAsia Contacts MLB Advanced Media Contact
Financial Relations Board: At the company:
Melanie Nimrodi Stacy Feit Matthew Gould
Media Inquiries Investor Inquiries (212) 485-8959
(312) 546-3508 (312) 640-6779 matthew.gould@mlb.com
mnimrodi@frbir.com sfeit@frbir.com
SOURCE BroadWebAsia Inc.
BROADWEBASIA, INC. 
By 
