Superbowl.com registered an unprecedented 28 million hits since its debut on December 29, 1995, making this innovative multimedia site the largest sports online project ever. Events on superbowl.com, the official Web site of Super Bowl XXX, culminated in a live, global "cybercast" of Super Bowl XXX by NFL On NBC analyst Randy Cross, Oakland Raider quarterback Jeff Hostetler and former Cowboys executive Gil Brandt. The project was a joint venture between the National Football League, NBC and The Microsoft Network (MSN).

In the week leading up to the Super Bowl XXX, the superbowl. com site averaged 1 million "hits" per day, with more than 5 million hits on game day alone. Hosted on the MSN family of servers, superbowl.com included coverage of all the events surrounding Super Bowl XXX with digital photos, live audio from press conferences, live expert analysis, live audio feeds of the stadium public address announcer, video clips of key plays, live audio of post game interviews, as well as on-line "chats" with NFL greats including Jim Kelly, John Elway and Brett Favre. At half-time, former Cowboy Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach provided live, on-line commentary. Fans will be able to visit superbowl.com through the end of February at http://superbowl.com, where all of the pre-game and game day transcripts, photos and audio clips still reside.

The latest Internet technologies from Microsoft, including the Microsoft Internet Explorer version 2.0 Web browser and the Microsoft Internet Information Server, were used to create and manage this first-ever cybercast of the Super Bowl. While the site is accessible to any user connected to the Internet, users of Internet Explorer have exclusive access to enhanced sound, video and graphics. The Internet Explorer was made available to users free for download directly from superbowl.com or from the Microsoft Windows Web site, http://www.microsoft.com/windows. Microsoft also gave away 80,000 customized CD-ROMs containing the Internet Explorer Web browser to Super Bowl attendees.

The unprecedented multimedia production also included NBC broadcast promotion of the superbowl.com site during the "Super Bowl on NBC" pre-game show as well as during the actual Super Bowl telecast itself. Fans who visited the site also submitted suggestions and questions regarding the Super Bowl which were incorporated into "NBC Sports Behind The Scenes: Super Bowl XXX" that was televised on Saturday, January 27. This groundbreaking coverage was featured on both the World Wide Web and MSN.

"The success of Superbowl.com which rapidly became the most heavily trafficked on-line sports event ever was a testament to the partnership between NBC, the NFL and Microsoft," said John Miller, Senior Vice President, Programming, NBC Sports.

"Super Bowl XXX provided a great show on the field, on the television and on the computer screen," said Anne Kirchner, vice president of programming and media development, NFL Enterprises. "Superbowl.com set a new milestone for the successful integration of television, online and advertising."

"We’re pleased to have been an integral part of such a successful online venture," said Mike Conte, group product manager in the Personal Systems Division at Microsoft. "The success of superbowl.com demonstrates the exciting potential that lies in the merging of the online world and popular culture, and the positive impact our Internet technologies can have on the user experience."

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For More Information, Press Only:

For NFL, Mary Griswold, NFL Enterprises, (212) 758-1500, ext. 173
For NBC Sports Information, Ed Markey, (212) 664-2014
For Microsoft Corp., Madeline Cox, Waggener Edstrom, (503) 245-0905

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