Interactive Multi-Media Website www.ueverest.com
Follows A Team Of Climbers On Mt. Everest
New York, NY – June 4, 2007 – VOOM HD Networks, the largest and most diverse suite of high definition channels worldwide and Altitude Films announced today Altitude Everest has signed an agreement with AOL to promote www.ueverest.com, an innovative and ambitious online experience that follows the progression of a team of climbers as they ascend and descend Mt. Everest retracing the last steps of George Mallory. In June 1924, Mallory, along with his climbing partner Sandy Irvine, were spotted just a few hundred yards short of the summit before a snowstorm closed in. They were never seen alive again. The project named Altitude Everest Expedition 2007 will be featured on AOL's recently launched documentary hub, True Stories (http://movies.aol.com/truestories) via the posting of exclusive content, including videos, stills and blogs.
Altitude Everest Expedition 2007 is led by world class explorer and mountaineer Conrad Anker, who discovered the body of George Mallory on Everest, and Leo Houlding, the rising star of British climbing. Anker, who was named as the world's Number One adventurer in Outside Magazine, discovered Mallory's body lying on the mountain in 1999, 75 years after he disappeared into the clouds near the summit. The expedition team is setting out in the footsteps of George Mallory and Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine, to investigate the mystery of whether the British climbers could have been the first men to reach the summit of Everest in 1924.
The fully interactive website is part of a three-tier initiative that also includes a behind-the-scenes documentary film that will air in 4th quarter on VOOM's extreme-sports channel RUSH HD. A theatrical film release on the expedition is scheduled for early 2008.
"Working with AOL affords Altitude Everest Expedition 2007 to reach a wide audience of people interested in following the progression of the climb moment by moment with exclusive photos, clips and blogs from members of the expedition team," said Greg Moyer, General Manager of VOOM HD Networks. "The crew will take the latest high definition cameras to the summit of Everest for a documentary film to be released in 2008 and a behind the scenes of the expedition on VOOM's Rush HD that will retrace the last steps of British climbing legend George Mallory."
Producer Anthony Geffen said, "We are delighted to be working with AOL on this exciting project. Through www.ueverest.com we will be able to provide the ultimate Everest experience following an international expedition to the summit of Everest as they set out to investigate one of the greatest mysteries in the history of exploration and adventure."
The www.ueverest.com website includes video despatches from the climbers as they make their ascent to the highest point on earth, photographs from the mountain, and the personal insights from the climbers and key members of the expedition team. A special biometrics project in the Body Zone section follows four members of the team, monitoring how altitude affects them and the physical changes their bodies experience as they reach into the realms of jet aircraft. The climbers will record their heart rates, oxygen levels, altitude and air temperature using state of the art technology with the data updated on the website on a daily basis.
The 2007 expedition team will investigate Mallory and Irvine's last journey in forensic detail; test the durability of their clothing and equipment in the unforgiving conditions of Everest; and piece together eyewitness accounts – all to reconstruct Mallory and Irvine's final, fateful hours. Key to our understanding of their summit attempt will be the climbers' attempt to climb the Second Step, a treacherous, 90-foot cliff that defied every climber after Mallory for half a century. 28,140 feet high, it is the one barrier that may have stopped Mallory and Irvine from reaching the summit in 1924.
The project has been put together by Altitude Films and Atlantic Productions. Since it was set up in 1992 by former BBC producer Anthony Geffen, Atlantic has earned a reputation for creating high-end documentary films that are regularly seen by audiences in more than forty countries around the world. Atlantic's recent credits include the BAFTA-nominated film Munich: Mossad's Revenge (Channel 4/ Discovery Channel), the critically acclaimed feature-length special Richard The Lionheart & Saladin: Holy Warriors (BBC/ PBS), the Emmy-nominated special Nefertiti Resurrected (Discovery Channel/ five) and the landmark BBC/ PBS series The Greeks: Crucible of Civilisation, hailed by The New York Times as 'one of the first fully convergent media projects of the digital age.'
About VOOM HD Networks
Rainbow's VOOM HD Networks (www.voom.com) comprise the world's largest suite of high-definition content for distribution through satellite and cable operators. With programming in categories as diverse as sports, movies, fashion, music and art, the VOOM HD Networks are available in the U.S. on Echostar's DISH Network. The 24/7 linear VOOM HD channel is available globally. It is currently distributed in Scandinavia, Estonia and Latvia, and will soon debut in Asia. Similarly, select VOOM HD programming is available worldwide and has been licensed to viewers in more than 50 countries. Building on Rainbow's history of original programming innovation, VOOM HD was developed to meet the growing worldwide demand for quality high-definition programming.
About Rainbow Media Holdings, LLC.
Rainbow Media Holdings LLC is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC). Rainbow Media is a leading producer of targeted, multi-platform programming for global distribution, creating and managing some of the world's most compelling and dynamic entertainment brands, including AMC, fuse, IFC, WE tv, Rainbow Sports Networks managed FSN Bay Area and FSN New England, LIFESKOOL, SPORTSKOOL, and VOOM HD Networks. The company also manages Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation, its advertising sales division, and Rainbow Network Communications, its full service network programming origination and distribution company.