MTV'S FIRST EVER CONVERGENCE SHOW "webRIOT" IS A BIG SUCCESS WITH VIEWERS AND ONLINE USERS

More than 600,000 Online Users Registered to Play with Over 3 Million Games Played

MTV Green Lights Second Season of "webRIOT" for 65 Episodes

NEW YORK--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Feb. 17, 2000-- Daily Music Trivia Game Show Simultaneously Brings Together Television and The Internet

MTV: Music Television announced today that its first ever, interactive, music trivia game show "webRIOT" has been renewed for a second season and will go back into production for another 65 episodes. Additionally, MTV.com has reported over 600,000 online users have downloaded the game and more than 3 million games have been played since the show launched in November, 1999.

Hosted by Ahmet Zappa, everyday "webRIOT" brings together online players and four in-studio contestants who battle it out to determine who knows the most about music and music videos. "webRIOT" airs Monday to Friday at 4:30 PM (ET/PT).

"We're thrilled that our audience embraced the show from the moment we launched it last year," commented Lois Curren, Senior Vice President, Music Development, MTV. "It's so exciting to be the first network to successfully create a truly interactive show uniting on-air and online on a daily basis. We plan to continue to break new creative ground converging, interactive programming experiences for our audiences over the next few months."

"MTV.com has been a leader in bringing our audience unique and creative ways to simultaneously interact with the computer and television," said Rick Holzman, Vice President, MTV Online. "'webRIOT' was the natural next step for us in convergent programming. We're excited that the show has become such a big hit with our on-air and online audience. We believe this new season will be even better and attract even more players."

"webRIOT" is back in production for another 65 episodes. A special week of celebrity guests on "webRIOT" will air in March. To date, cast members from MTV's "Real World Hawaii" including Ruthie, Tek, Justin and Kaia have been booked as contestants during this week. Pop music artist Jordan Knight and rappers Lil'Zane, B-Real (Cypress Hill), and Pink are just some of the celebrities also slated to participate. Additional celebrity guest contestants will be announced shortly.

During "webRIOT," in-studio contestants and online users watch music videos pulled from past and present rotation on MTV. A variety of questions with accompanying multiple choice answers appear for the contestants to answer. MTV Online players, who play LIVE against the show's broadcast, have to watch MTV for the questions. The online game is synchronized to the television show allowing at home users to answer questions along with the in-studio players.

There are three rounds played during "webRIOT" - two video rounds per game and the final "speed" round. The faster the in-studio contestant answers a question correctly, the more points he/she will receive. The number of points will diminish as time runs out. If the question is answered incorrectly, the contestant will lose half the value of that question had it been answered correctly. After each of the first two rounds, the contestant with the lowest score is eliminated. The final two competitors go to round three, the "speed" round. The in-studio contestant with the highest score will be crowned the "webRIOT" champion and receive MTV prizes including a Bahama's resort vacation, stereo system, Cobra laser detector, watches and more.

Additionally, each day during the half-hour on-air show, up to 50,000 online contestants have the opportunity to register and play "webRIOT" on MTV Online (mtv.com or AOL keyword:MTV). Online users do not need specialized hardware, software, or cabling. The software can be download from webRIOT.MTV.com. However, online players must have their TV and PC in the same room. MTV Online contestants play rounds one and two only because scores for online players are tallied during the on-air "speed" round. The top ten online players of the day have their user name appear on the television screen at the end of the show. MTV Online players are also be eligible to win big ticket prizes including CD Now gift certificates, Rio MP3 players and one lucky grand prize winner will win a high end home computing system.

The online software for "webRIOT" was developed by Spiderdance, an Internet media company that creates mass participation online programming synchronized and tightly integrated with television broadcasts. "webRIOT" uses Spiderdance's proprietary sync-to broadcast activity server technology, which can fully integrate massive numbers of Internet users with broadcast or broadband content.

The award-winning MTV Online site, available on America Online at keyword MTV and on the world wide web at mtv.com, combines music news and information, including tour schedules and reviews, live events with celebrities and artists, special contests and promotions, original time-anchored online programming, games, and more all presented in a unique format.

MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom Inc., owns and operates five cable television programming services -- MTV: Music Television, MTV 2, VH1, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, and Nick at Nite's TV Land -- all of which are trademarks of MTV Networks.

MTV.com is a unit of The MTVi Group, the world's leading Internet music content company featuring a comprehensive collection of music destinations on the Internet. The MTVi Group's 18 worldwide destinations include MTV.com, VH1.com, and SonicNet.com. The MTVi Group is a unit of MTV Networks, which is owned by Viacom Inc.. Headquartered in downtown New York, The MTVi Group has satellite offices in San Francisco, CA. Liberty Digital holds a minority stake in The MTVi Group. For more information please visit The MTVi Group corporate Web site (http://www.mtvigroup.com/).

Spiderdance is an Internet media company that creates mass participation online programming synchronized and tightly integrated with television broadcasts. Using their proprietary technology, Spiderdance can today deliver interactive content over the Web that ties directly into TV broadcasts. Information about Spiderdance is available at http://www.spiderdance.com/.