Wednesday, August 11, 2010

PBA’s Xtra Frame Gets Major Upgrade
through Partnership with NeuLion
Improved online video quality, easier
viewing, other features to debut in September

The Professional Bowlers Association has entered into a partnership agreement with NeuLion, Inc., which will dramatically improve video quality, ease of viewing and provide numerous other improvements to the PBA’s Xtra Frame online video streaming service when it debuts in September.

As part of its ongoing goal to make Xtra Frame the world leader in online bowling content, the PBA has entered into a partnership with the world leader in providing live and on-demand sports and variety programming delivered via broadband to the international Internet community.

NeuLion, which provides its digital services to the National Football League, National Hockey League and a number of NCAA teams among others, will become the platform for PBA’s Xtra Frame. Bowling fans will continue to “connect” to Xtra Frame through pba.com, the PBA’s official website, but will find the new Xtra Frame home page will have a dramatically different look and will offer a new series of online experiences including enhanced video quality, pause and rewind of live streams, highlights, chat, exclusive on-demand content and more.

“Partnering with an established industry leader such as NeuLion is another step in the rapid, continual growth in quality, scope and viewership of Xtra Frame,” said PBA COO and Deputy Commissioner Tom Clark. “Our fans are going to love the added features and benefits and will feel closer to PBA action than ever before. We selected NeuLion because it gives us a single-solution provider and its experience in the sports marketplace is important to us.”


PBA’s effort to enhance its digital business stemmed from the need to unlock the social potential of the sport for the casual and avid fan in the wake of Xtra Frame’s steadily growing popularity. NeuLion’s cutting-edge technology dovetails perfectly with the PBA’s expansion into the social networking world, and the PBA’s official website will provide the launch pad for interaction with the bowling community around the world.


As an example, because bowling is a leading recreational sport in Japan, Xtra Frame will be available for fans in Japan and NeuLion will implement its multi-language support services to offer landing pages, sign up promotions and order flow in Japanese.

The NeuLion platform also will provide the PBA with new opportunities to provide subscribers with a wider variety of subscription options, and the ability to view content without the need to install special software.

“The NeuLion Platform will offer the PBA additional features in the future for e-commerce, auction and mobile video. As we partner with PBA and build its digital business, bowling fans will find more and more products and services available,” said Chris Wagner, Executive Vice President of NeuLion.

The new PBA video service will launch in September, and will be fully operational for daily coverage of the PBA World Series of Bowling, Oct. 24-Nov. 6, at South Point Hotel, Casino and Bowling Center in Las Vegas, Nev., the kickoff event of the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season.

About the PBA
The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is an organization of more than 3,800 of the best bowlers from 13 countries who compete in Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour, Regional and Senior Tour events. Nearly one million ESPN viewers watch PBA Tour on Sundays during the tour season and thousands watch PBA activities online by using PBA’s video streaming service, Xtra Frame. PBA sponsors include Barbasol, Bayer, Brunswick, Etonic, Flomax, GEICO, Go RVing, H&R Block, Lumber Liquidators, One A Day Men’s 50+ Multivitamin, Pepsi-Cola and the USBC, among others. For more information, log on to www.pba.com.

About NeuLion
Based in Plainview, N.Y.; Sanford, Fla., and Toronto, Ontario, NeuLion (TSX:NLN) works with content partners to develop end-to-end solutions for multimedia IPTV services. The NeuLion IPTV Platform encodes, delivers, stores and manages an unlimited range of multimedia content and the Operational Support System (OSS) maintains all billing and customer support services. Content partners are responsible for content aggregation and the sales and marketing for the individual IPTV service. The Company ranks as a world leader in customer/partner relationships with sports, international and specialty television content partners including, in sports, the NHL, the NFL, NCAA Division I schools and conferences and, in respect to international and specialty television aggregators and networks, KyLinTV (Chinese), ABS-CBN (Filipino), Talfazat and Talfazat-ART (Arabic), TV-Desi (South Asian) and Sky Angel (Christian). Customer/partner content can be viewed by way of the Internet on PCs and mobile devices and on the television through the Company’s IPTV set top box.

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