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Jacked, Inc.™ and Raycom Sports Announce Three-Year Partnership to Produce Interactive Sportscasts
Jacked SportsTop™ Selected as the Official Second Screen for Raycom-Produced ACC and SEC Football and Basketball Games
SANTA MONICA, Calif. and CHARLOTTE, N.C. – June 23, 2008 – Jacked, Inc. ™ (www.jacked.com), the developer of the first customizable broadcast Webtop, announced today a three-year partnership with Raycom Sports, a national leader in marketing, producing and distributing sports programming, to integrate the Jacked SportsTop™ within Raycom broadcasts. Through this partnership, Jacked will become the official second-screen publisher for Raycom Sports-produced NCAA Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and Southeastern Conference (SEC) college football and basketball games.
Jacked and Raycom Sports will provide a cross-platform product offering that integrates on-air, online and in-game promotions with a synchronous dashboard of real-time, interactive content and advertising for ACC and SEC broadcasts. The partnership between the two companies is set to commence during the fall 2008 NCAA football season supporting Raycom’s SEC and ACC HD Football packages, covering more than 37 million television households in more than 70 markets. Viewers of ACC and SEC games will initially have access to Jacked’s customizable SportsTop™ through TheACC.com and RaycomSports.com respectively.
“The partnership with Raycom Sports enables Jacked to deliver our SportsTop™ to a network of sports fans seeking a deeper connection to the games they are watching,” said Bryan Biniak, CEO of Jacked, Inc. “This partnership unites old and new media, opening new advertising opportunities that can advance the relationship between live broadcast and online models through geo-targeted and contextual advertising options targeted to unique viewers, game events and content.”
“Teaming up with a strong multimedia company in Jacked makes perfect sense for our fans,” said Colin Smith, vice president of distribution and new media for Raycom Sports. “The Jacked SportsTop™ will add a whole new level of interaction between our viewers and our broadcasts of ACC and SEC basketball and football. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our syndicated programming. In this partnership with Jacked, we feel that everyone associated with Raycom Sports syndication of ACC and SEC will benefit greatly, especially the fans at home watching the games.”
“Raycom Sports is very excited about working with Jacked on ACC and SEC football and basketball,” said Ken Haines, president and CEO of Raycom Sports. “This is an opportunity for two great companies to work together to benefit each other and, more importantly, the consumer. The Jacked SportsTop™ will enhance the experience for fans and bring them even closer to the games.”
The Jacked SportsTop™ currently supports all NBA, MLB and NHL games, as well as NCAA Division I Football and Basketball games, providing sports fans with a personalized browser-based, Rich Internet Application that dynamically synchronizes contextually-relevant online programming with sports broadcasts. Viewers can choose from a catalog of customizable widgets – which they can add, delete, resize and save to their preferences – that provide up-to-the-second player and game statistics, team photos, videos, news and interactive features including sports trivia and the ability to chat with fans in real time. For the ACC and SEC SportsTops™, Jacked will incorporate Raycom-owned content, including ACC and SEC game videos, interviews and highlights, into the widget offerings.
The Jacked multi-patent platform and SearchCasting™ technology presents a unique opportunity for advertisers to extend their brands to consumers online when they are most engaged in the broadcast experience via a real-time engagement, response and measurement solution. Jacked users spend an average of 25 minutes on the SportsTop™ each time they log on, providing advertisers with a captive audience of sports fans and a variety of advertising options. Ads can be tied to contextual events during the broadcast, geo-targeted and eventually synchronized within broadcast commercials.
Jacked’s second screen platform embraces the growing trend of active viewing where viewers of a television program use their PC to participate in the programs they are watching including searching for content related to what they are watching, while they are watching it. According to recent research, there are currently 112 million total television households in the US and more than 82 million portable computers. Recent reports show that sports fans are embracing the second screen with 39.5 percent of adults and 35 percent of U.S. college students regularly watching TV while going online. Of the 70 percent of individuals under the age of 34 who watch TV while online, more than 13 percent of them are looking up information on what they are currently watching.
About Jacked, Inc.
Jacked™ is the developer of the first customizable Webtop platform that creates second screen experiences which complement live broadcast programming and advertising. The company’s first product, Jacked’s SportsTop™, currently supports all NBA, MLB and NHL games, as well as NCAA Division 1 Football and Basketball games, with real-time, contextually-generated, synchronous programming. Jacked has partnered with numerous broadcasters and sports leagues including NBC, CBS, Versus, Fox’s Fuel TV and the NHL.
Jacked was recently recognized by media company AlwaysOn as both one of the OnMedia 100 and OnHollywood 100 Winners and was also selected as one of 30 leading technology companies to join the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program. Jacked is a venture-backed company with funding from Provenance Ventures, Core Capital Partners and Gabriel Venture Partners. Jacked was founded in June 2006 and is based in Santa Monica, Calif.
About Raycom Sports
Raycom Sports is a leading independent sports marketing, event management and production firm. Raycom is the television rightsholder of ACC men’s basketball and syndicated football telecasts, and SEC syndicated men’s basketball and football telecasts. In addition, the company owns and operates events around the country including the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte and the LPGA Longs Drugs Challenge in San Francisco.
Raycom Sports’ parent company Raycom Media, located in Montgomery, AL, owns and operates 44 television stations covering over 12 percent of the United States across 18 states.
For More Information, Please Contact:
Danit Ross, GCI Group for Jacked, Inc. – (310) 526-5529 or dross@gcigroup.com
Frank Kay, Raycom Sports – (704) 378-4428 or fkay@raycomsports.com