ZapMedia.com To Release “Living Room” Internet Appliance

ZapMedia.com (http://www.zapmedia.com) today announced the ability to pre-order their ZapStation Universal Media Player on their website.

The product is being touted by the company as an all-in-one internet entertainment device. The device is a "living-room" appliance that is designed to give the consumer the ability to combine their traditional forms of entertainment such as CD's, television, DVDs and radio with access to new forms of media entertainment such as MP3s, Internet Radio and Internet Television. Essentially, the company is hoping that you'll never have to leave the couch to view or listen to anything you could possibly want. (A remote control is included!)

The ZapStation will be sold for $599.00 and is scheduled to hit electronics stores in October 2000.

The ZapStation Universal Media Player features an MP3 player and jukebox, audio/video player, CD/DVD player, storage for up to 10,000 songs or storage for up to 20 hours of digital video. The ZapStation plugs into existing TVs, stereos and the Internet allowing consumers to download, stream, store, and manage access to video and music files from the web.

The company's planned entertainment "ecosystem" is to consist of the device, software, service and portal necessary to operate the system. The company has created the ZapMedia software engine, the ZapMedia.com Portal and ZapAccess. The company is working on developing the ZapAccess service to include wireless downloads to portable devices such as car stereos.

ZapMedia.com received 270 million dollars worth of funding from the Gannett Co. Inc/ USA Today back in May of this year. The deal was a combination of cash investment and future advertising . Gannett Broadcasting boasts control of about 17 percent of the domestic market and 20 million readers through 74 daily newspapers including USA TODAY and the newspaper magazine, USA WEEKEND.