VISIT ANY EVENT, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE!

London, 01 December 2006: A new TV channel launches today giving people the chance to ‘virtually’ visit any event, anywhere around the world, at any time they want. Attend.TV (www.attend.tv) is a new web-based TV channel that hosts video footage of global events so that people who can’t make a particular exhibition, fashion show or wedding can simply go online and see all the best bits.



The footage is hosted in two ways. Firstly, Attend.TV is regularly taking film crews and presenters to consumer exhibitions and shows across the UK, and then editing and broadcasting that footage, allowing people to ‘virtually’ visit them in their own time. Already a host of shows have been filmed and are available on the channel including MPH 06, The Baby Show and Music Live 2006. The second aspect of Attend.TV – and expected to be the area with the biggest growth potential - allows the British public and businesses to host their own videos on the channel so that anyone globally can come to their event.

“The only caveat is that the subject should be something you can actually attend,” says Bryan Wilkes, the brains behind the project. “So that could be weddings, bar mitzvahs or birthday parties, or maybe you’re in a band and have footage of a concert that you want to promote. We’re not the next YouTube - if people could have gone to see it, then up it goes, if it’s anything else, it doesn’t belong.”

The idea originally came when, in a previous role with an international group, Bryan would spend much of his time travelling to conferences and events. “For years I spent a lot of time travelling around the world for my job and I became aware of the frustration of sometimes unavoidably missing important events. What Attend.TV offers is a chance to show your event to a global audience, but also for those people who couldn’t make the event to see the best bits.”

Despite the service being only days old, already the corporate community is seeing its potential and how an audience of millions can suddenly be reached to promote an exhibition stand, for example, that might normally only see a fraction of that number during a three day show. For each company featured their website address is provided so it is easy to then get additional information.

“For people to be able to visit, albeit it virtually, a stand at a show in Los Angeles gives enormous freedom to the viewer and massive marketing power to the exhibitor – everyone’s a winner,” said Bryan Wilkes. “And with our fantastic team of presenters, we really want people to feel like they are being shown the very best bits of what these shows have to offer.”

The launch of Attend.TV is expected to springboard the careers of the three-strong presenter team that front the channel. Rebecca Jo Hanbury (anchor), Bonnie Bridgman and Jonathan Race won the chance to be the presenting team for the channel after a long and very popular interview process.

“It’s clearly a huge opportunity for the three of us,” said Rebecca Jo Hanbury. “And the types of company that have already asked Attend.TV to film them proves the format is very appealing. To date we’ve filmed all manner of companies from Gumball 3000, Jaguar and Volvo, to John Lewis, the Prince’s Trust and even the Metropolitan Police. It’s a fantastic mix of events that people can experience.” “Visitors to our site will discover holidays in Scotland where you make your own guitar, an interview with Sir Stirling Moss and many weird and wonderful products”

Attend.TV is divided into channels and programmes, like any TV station, to improve visitor navigation. There are numerous vertical channels (e.g. fashion, motor, health & fitness etc) each offering visitors the chance to upload their own footage in a preferred zone. Each channel contains a full programme listing with search facilities to make it easy to find videos of particular interest. The whole site has been designed with ease-of-use in mind and takes visitors through a simple upload process so they can have their video viewed by millions through the high resolution wide screen Flash player. Nominal charges will apply (based on the length of the video) but for the moment the self upload service is being trialled on a free basis.

www.attend.tv