Wizzard Media Acquires iPhone Apps To Monetize Podcast Network

Wizzard Media (NYSE Amex: WZE), the world’s largest podcasting network announced today the acquisition of the exclusive distribution rights to six iPhone Apps. These Apps are currently for sale through Apple’s App Store for use on iPhones and the iPod Touch including: Blue Attack, OmNomNom, Sudoku Unlimited, TouchScan, Blue Defense and Sudoku Classic.

Based on current sales figures, Wizzard estimates these Apps will generate over $228,000 in annual revenues, after the standard deduction of Apple’s 30%, for the Company before any increased sales from marketing the Apps via the Wizzard Podcast Network to iPhone and iPod Touch users. Through advertising and marketing by Wizzard’s thousands of podcast producers to their highly engaged audience of iPhone and iPod users, Wizzard believes sales could be significantly higher on an annual basis. The Company plans to continue to acquire the rights for up to 100 already launched and approved iPhone Apps to provide podcast producers with a continuous stream of fresh, paid advertising for their episodic shows, app developers with increased sales revenues and provide for profitable App sales for Wizzard. Piper Jaffray’s Financial Analyst, Gene Munster, is projecting total App Store revenue of $780 million in 2009 for Apple.

“The Apple App Store has been an incredible success since its launch last year and we believe iTunes is the greatest digital media sales channel in the world. We know through our podcast distribution statistics that they attract a tremendous amount of media consumers,” says Chris Spencer, Wizzard Media CEO. “The simplicity of a consumer hearing about a great App from their favorite podcast and being able to pause the podcast, click to the App store and buy, all on their iPhone, makes us believe that this could be a great success for podcasters app developers and for Wizzard. The fact that they don’t have to enter credit card information and the low cost price of the Apps make this a compelling offer to consumers.”

This announcement is the first step in Wizzard’s expanded monetization plan for its podcasting network of 20,000 producers and their 18 million viewers and listeners, approximately 70% of whom use iTunes to subscribe to and download their favorite podcasts. The plan, launched in mid-March, has already resulted in the closing of the afore mentioned Apps and Wizzard is in negotiation with 20 Apps for acquisition with a growing pipeline of interested App developers who see the value of marketing Apps via podcasts. Wizzard believes this step will put it closer to its goal of profitability and will be announcing the next step in its network monetization plan in approximately 30 days.

“As more people move towards the mobile consumption of podcasts on the iPhone and iPod Touch, Wizzard sees new revenue opportunities opening up for its podcasting business using Apple’s App Store micropayment system,” says Dave Mansueto, co- founder of podcasting goliath Liberated Syndication (a Wizzard Media company). “By creating a continuous revenue stream for podcast producers and App developers through the marketing of iPhone Apps via podcasts, we believe Wizzard is strengthening its market leading position in the podcast industry and will continue to be the service of choice for monetizing podcast inventory for media companies, large and small.”

To learn more or purchase the Apps discussed above please visit: http://www.wizzardsoftware.com/featured_apps.php

About Wizzard Media (a division of Wizzard Software):

Wizzard Media provides publishing and distribution services to podcasters and monetization services for podcasters. Wizzard Media is the industry's leading podcasting network with an unprecedented 1.2 billion download requests in 2008. Podcasts are a means for independent and professional content creators to publish audio and video shows for the world to enjoy over the Internet or on mp3 players, such as the Apple iPod®, iPhone® and the Microsoft Zune®. Podcasting is a relatively new phenomenon, but Wizzard Media collectively broadcasts millions of podcast downloads per day through media aggregators like Apple's iTunes and Microsoft's Zune Marketplace. For more information, please visit www.wizzardsoftware.com/media_v2.php. Wizzard Media is a division of Wizzard Software, a leader in speech technology distribution and development.

Legal Notice

Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: "Forward-looking Statements" as defined in the Private Securities litigation Reform Act of 1995 may be included in this news release. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance. These statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future results or events. We disclaim any intention or obligation to revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. There are important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to risks associated with changes in general economic and business conditions, actions of our competitors, the extent to which we are able to develop new services and markets for our services, the time and expense involved in such development activities, the level of demand and market acceptance of our services, changes in our business strategies and acts of terror against the United States.

iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone and iTunes are all registered marks of Apple, Inc.

App Nation: Web Applications, Mobile Applications, and iTV Applications

(Micro-Projectors)
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We are an app nation. Apps are on our phones, on the Internet, and on their way Internet Television. Web applications are accessed via a web browser over a network such as the Internet or an intranet and they are software applications coded in browser-supported languages. Mobile applications are developed based on the 6 M's, Movement (location), Moment (time), Me (personalization), Multi-user (community), Money (payments) and Machines (automation). Internet TV applications are developed for set-top boxes, broadband TV's, and remote devices.

The iPhone is what has really made apps a relevant topic amongst the mainstream public and they are in high demand. There are iPhone apps for everything you can imagine. Apple says, "they leverage the groundbreaking technology in iPhone — like the Multi-Touch interface, the accelerometer, GPS, real-time 3D graphics, and 3D positional audio." They also have designed a great App Store where you can choose from thousands of applications ready to download now. If you have an iPhone you are probably already familiar with apps.

Google now has its own mobile app store for the Android platform and their G1 phone. Android is a software platform and operating system for mobile devices, based on the Linux kernel, developed by Google and later the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed code in the Java language, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries. Here are some pics and information from Google.

A new service called Boxee is helping spur the Internet TV app market with its latest announcement of an app box. Boxee is a social media center. With Boxee you can play videos, music and pictures from your PC or from the Internet. You can also share with your friends what albums you're listening to, what movies and TV shows you're watching, send recommendations and more. The App box makes it much easier for everyone else to release new apps and add more content to Boxee. Blip.tv, a video site dedicated to helping great shows find an audience, has already built a Boxee app to share their shows with 350,000 Boxee users. Boxee has also designed an iPhone app that lets you control your AppleTV and Boxee system with the iPhone or iTouch.

Apps are influencing all aspects of our media lives and they play an integral part in processing information effectively. We will see apps spread to a wider range of devices in our homes over the next few years.