NEWS FROM ONLINE MEDIA - PR 08/04.01.95 

4 January 1995 

ONLINE MEDIA, OLIVETTI AND MACROMEDIA JOIN FORCES 

....forging the way ahead in authoring for 
digital interactive TV.... 

Leading set-top box supplier Online Media, representing Olivetti's interests 
in the emerging market of interactive television, and multimedia 
applications developer Macromedia have today announced a joint development 
and marketing agreement. 

The announcement forges the way ahead in authoring for digital interactive 
television.  This reinforces Online Media and Olivetti's support of the 
"Author Once, Play Anywhere" strategy, which has established Macromedia as a 
standard for multimedia and interactive television services in the US and 
worldwide. 

Online Media now becomes a full implementation partner in the Portable 
Player programme able to undertake development of players for its own use 
and for others.  The first task will be the implementation of a Player for 
the Online Media range of digital set-top devices based on the ARM Risc 
processor. 

Malcolm Bird, CEO of Online Media, commented: "Macromedia's Portable Player 
technology coupled with the emergence of appropriate standards, is crucial 
to the success of the flourishing interactive television services market. 
Today's announcement will mean that service authors can now write once and 
target numerous computer and set-top architectures." 

"Macromedia is excited to work with a strong European partner, Olivetti, 
which has shown vision and commitment to the interactive TV market through 
the creation of Online Media," said Bud Colligan, CEO of Macromedia. 

"The Acorn Computer Group is one of very few companies which have such 
system-wide skills to call upon in the development of competitive products 
for this rapidly emerging market.  The licencing of Online Media strengthens 
our coverage, capability and capacity to develop the Portable Player 
products." 

Notes to editors: 

Macromedia - background information:  Macromedia, the leader in multimedia 
and digital arts software tools, offers a full range of products for the 
Windows and Macintosh platforms.  The company's flagship products include: 
Macromedia FreeHand , the most powerful tool for design and illustration; 
Macromedia Director , the industry-standard animation and authoring tool for 
multimedia production; Authorware Professional, the premier multiplatform 
authoring tool for interactive learning; MacroModel , a powerful 3D modeling 
tool for multimedia, graphics and product design; SoundEdit 16 , the 
easy-to-use digital sound recording and editing solution; Fontographer , the 
industry-standard typeface editing programme; and Action! , the most popular 
multimedia presentation application. 

Online Media - background information:  Online Media is a member of the 
Acorn Computer Group and has the full strategic backing from Acorn's parent 
company, Olivetti.  Established in July 1994, Online Media provides world 
class, innovative affordable interactive television products in hardware, 
enabling software and services to meet the requirements of the markets 
emerging from the information superhighway.  The company focuses on cost 
competitive designs, which exploit emerging standards and its first product, 
an intelligent digital set-top box, is already in production and in use. 
Through its participation in the Cambridge Trial and other application 
trials, Online Media already has a strong track record in interactive TV. 
Alongside hardware products, Online Media offers authoring systems, 
services and consultancy in service development, as well as other areas. 
All Online Media designs are available under licence. 

### 

Authorware Professional, Director, Macromedia, FreeHand and Fontographer are 
registered trademarks of Macromedia.  Action! and MacroModel are trademarks 
of Macromedia.  All other products and services are identified by the 
trademarks or service marks of their respective companies.