MSN and Control Room Bring Music’s Biggest Performances to
Fans in Europe
Exclusive multiyear agreement launches with
John Legend live from The Royal Albert Hall, London on 2 October
September 29, 2006, Bangalore: MSN, a leader in delivering compelling entertainment to Indian
consumers, today announced a multiyear, global content distribution agreement with Control
Room, the No. 1 provider of live digital entertainment and the producers of Live 8.
The partnership will see MSN as the exclusive online worldwide destination for Control Room’s
live music programming, via live and on-demand streaming. Officially launching in the UK on 2
October, the agreement means that nearly 465 million visitors to MSN worldwide, including
millions of fans in India will have access to an exclusive performance from John Legend. The
multiple-award-winning singer, songwriter and pianist’s live Royal Albert Hall performance will be
available at http://msn.co.in/johnlegend from 16.00 GMT. Additional artists already scheduled to
appear on MSN through the relationship with Control Room include Rod Stewart from the Nokia
Theater in NYC and John Mayer from Webster Hall in NYC.
The partnership will further allow visitors to MSN® Video ongoing access to live concerts from the
most popular, top-selling musical artists as well as today’s most talked-about breakthrough acts.
“With the video content market surging as it has been in the last year since Live 8, we have
proven that there is a robust market for a company like ours to change the way live entertainment
is consumed, now and in the future,” said Kevin Wall, CEO of Control Room. “With MSN, we have
found a global partner that sees the value and profit in providing our rich and cutting-edge live
entertainment content to its consumers worldwide.”
Greg Nelson, General Manager for the MSN Network said, “With this collaboration, artists now
have an extremely valuable, cohesive, global marketing and promotion avenue to reach and
connect with fans worldwide, while in turn it creates another key access point for consumers to
get high-quality content from the musicians they love.”
With this agreement in place, MSN and Control Room will embark upon a deep, exclusive content
collaboration, combining Control Room’s expertise in creating and delivering live music events for
cross-media distribution with the feature-rich video programming of MSN and its global reach and
branded entertainment appeal to advertisers.
Further, through this agreement, Microsoft Corp. may stream Control Room shows to other
platforms, including Xbox Live®, MSN Messenger, Microsoft® Windows Media® Player and
Windows® XP Media Center Edition.
The Control Room team will leverage its deep and broad experiences, relationships and skills
accrued while creating and digitally distributing more than 59 shows in the past year to deliver
high-quality live music programming to MSN. Control Room maintains the same seasoned
management team, many of whom worked on the now historic Live 8, and also continues content
distribution relationships with television, radio, theatrical and retail partners worldwide.
About Control Room
Control Room (formerly Network LIVE) is the No. 1 provider of live digital entertainment, offering
fans unparalleled access to the artists they want — when and how they want it — via broadband,
TV, radio, wireless, theatrical and retail. Control Room has produced and distributed more than
59 concerts with artists like Beyoncé, Madonna, Green Day and Dave Matthews Band, as well as
global events like Live 8 and the Rolling Stones from Copacabana Beach. Its best-in-class, multipartner network provides unprecedented reach for live offerings through broadband, television,
digital movie theatres and mobile phones throughout the U.S. and the world.
About MSN Video
MSN Video is one of the largest video-only streaming services on the Web, watched by more
than 11 million unique users per month. In addition to streaming news, entertainment and sports
video clips from more than 45 content partners including “The Today Show,” FOX Sports,
MSNBC, JibJab Media Inc. and Fox Entertainment Group, MSN Video presents a broad array of
live events to online audiences worldwide. More than 50 top advertisers support MSN Video,
which is available to consumers at no charge. MSN Video is available on the Web at
http://msnvideo.com to consumers in the U.S. MSN Video is also live in Australia, Canada, Japan
and the U.K., and in Spanish in the U.S.; the service also is in beta testing in France.
Overall, MSN attracts more than 465 million unique users worldwide per month. With localized
versions available globally in 42 markets and 21 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering
Web services to consumers and online advertising opportunities to businesses worldwide.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software for personal
and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to
empower people through great software-any time, any place and on any device. Microsoft has
been in India since 1990 and employs over 4000 people across its offices in New Delhi, Mumbai,
Bangalore, Calcutta, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune.
Microsoft, MSN, Xbox Live, Windows Media and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft
Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.