Associated Press and RealNetworks To Launch Video News Service

The Associated Press (http://www.ap.org) and RealNetworks ( http://www.realnetworks.com) announced they are launching an audio and video news service called AP Streaming News.

This new service will give AP's partner web sites audio and video news, something that many newspapers and news sites don't have much of.

"The online news market is moving quickly to embrace multimedia presentations that include audio and video, driven by the increasing momentum behind broadband delivery technology and more competition for the online news audience," said Jim Kennedy, director of AP Multimedia Services. "The AP identified that shift early and developed AP Streaming News to help its member newspapers and broadcasters catch the leading edge of this audio-video wave."

AP Streaming News provides anchored audio news summaries, regularly scheduled video newscasts, sound and video clips for major news stories and live links to selected events on a daily basis for AP's newspaper and broadcast members.

All the video and audio packages are produced by APTN and AP Network News.

USA TODAY, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and the Alexandria (La.) Daily Town Talk were among the member newspapers which participated in the beta testing of AP Streaming News on their Web sites.