VITAC Awarded Contract to Caption NBC and Telemundo Broadcasts of the Athens Olympic Games

From: PR Newswire (press release) - Aug 4, 2004

Live Captioning to be provided in English and for the first time in Spanish on Telemundo

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- VITAC, the industry leader in closed captioning, today announced that it has been selected by NBC Universal to caption a portion of its broadcasts of the Athens Olympic Games in English and for all Spanish-language broadcasts on Telemundo. This is the sixth time VITAC has been chosen to provide captioning services to the broadcaster of the Olympics and the first time for VITAC to caption Olympic broadcasts in Spanish.

"From our experience in captioning broadcasts of the Olympic Games we know it to be, by far, the most difficult captioning job in television," said Patricia Prozzi, CEO, VITAC. "VITAC captioners are up to the challenge and proud to provide captioning not only in English but also be a part of history by captioning broadcasts of the Olympic Games for the first time in Spanish for U.S. viewers."

"We are committed to making our broadcasts of the Olympic Games accessible to all viewers -- both in English and Spanish," said Randy Raddatz, director of sourcing, NBC Olympics. "The Olympics are one of television's most anticipated and most watched events and we are pleased that through our partnership with VITAC our coverage will be accessible to everyone who wants to enjoy the competition and pageantry of the Games." VITAC's team of captioners began preparing in July for their work on NBC's and Telemundo's coverage, which begins with preliminary soccer matches on Aug. 11 on Telemundo. NBC's coverage from Athens launches Aug. 13 with the Opening Ceremony. Captioning of Olympic broadcasts requires extensive prep work to be ready with the correct names and spellings of athletes, coaches, cities and Olympic history that might be addressed during the telecasts. Their work allows NBC's and Telemundo's broadcasts of the Olympics to be accessible to as many as 210 million caption viewers. This audience includes the deaf and hard of hearing, those learning English as a second language, elementary school children practicing reading skills, and others who must turn the sound off at home or work in order not to disturb those around them or those who will turn the captions on to follow the Games despite ambient noise. In addition, there are 13 million Hispanic households in the United States who can benefit from Spanish captioning.

McDonald's Corporation is sponsoring the complete captioning of the 2004 Olympic Games coverage on NBC, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, Telemundo and USA.

ABOUT NBC, TELEMUNDO
NBC's unprecedented 24-hour, around-the-clock coverage of the 2004 Olympic Games from Athens will total 1,210 hours on seven NBC platforms -- NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Bravo, Telemundo and NBC HDTV affiliates -- offering more Olympic coverage than the combined total from the last five previous Summer Olympics. Over the 17 days of the Athens Games (Aug. 13-29), NBC's coverage will average more than 70 hours per day and offer the most in-depth Olympic coverage in history. For the first time in U.S. broadcast history the networks of NBC will provide some coverage of every one of the 28 Summer Olympic sports. Telemundo's Spanish-language broadcast will be the first non-English language Olympic broadcast in U.S. television history. NBC owns the exclusive U.S. media rights for five consecutive Summer and Winter Olympics from 2000 through 2012 and has exclusively broadcast every Summer Olympics since 1988.

About VITAC
VITAC, a WordWave company, is a leading provider of captioning and multi- language subtitling services with offices in North Hollywood, Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh. VITAC provides accessibility solutions for broadcast networks, cable TV, home video, DVD, teleconferences and Internet programs worldwide. Among the company's largest clients are CBS, CNN, NBC, FOX, Discovery, Scripps Networks, Verizon and the Federal Aviation Administration. VITAC also provides Spanish captioning for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Al RojoVivo on Telemundo and various government agencies and corporations. WordWave is a privately held, global provider of litigation support, captioning and subtitling, and digital recording and transcription services.

SOURCE VITAC Web Site: http://www.vitac.com

Copyright © 1996-2004 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved.