FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NFL-16                      4/6/05

NFL.COM CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY

Top Team Sites of 2004 Named
New Research Shows NFL Fans’ Web Use & Interactive Viewing on Rise

Continuing its long tradition of technological innovation, the NFL 10 years ago this week (April 10, 1995) became the first sports league with an Internet site, launching "NFL Sidelines" at the web address nflhome.com. In the spring of 1996, the NFL re-launched the website at NFL.com. (See chart at bottom for "NFL.com Then & Now.")

In March 2000, the NFL Internet Network, comprised of NFL.com, the websites of the league’s 32 clubs and related sites, was established. Last spring, the NFL Internet Network agreement was extended for 15 years through 2019 by vote of NFL clubs.

With the team sites becoming such an integral part of the Network, awards for the best sites as voted upon by NFL clubs were handed out for the first time following the 2002 season. This week at the NFL Business Summit in Detroit, the following NFL Internet Network web awards for the 2004 season were presented:

Award Winning Team
Best Overall Site Atlanta Falcons
Best Navigation Denver Broncos
Best Content Philadelphia Eagles
Best Design New York Giants
Best Fan Interactivity Jacksonville Jaguars
Most Improved Site Cincinnati Bengals

For the year, the NFL Internet Network was the most visited among all sports league sites in-season (13.3 million unique users per month) and overall (9.4 million unique users per month) according to Media Metrix.

To further gauge the internet habits of sports fans, the NFL commissioned Copernicus Marketing Consulting and Research, the Boston-based firm, to conduct research on sports fans’ web usage and their views of the NFL Internet Network. Following are some of the findings:

· 28 million men age 18-49 visit sports websites on a regular basis.

· Users visit sports websites 7.7 times per week, visit an average of 3.8 sites per week, and spend an average of 3.2 hours per week on sports web sites.

· 48% of sports website users watch NFL games interactively (use the web while watching games on TV). By comparison, 41% watched interactively in a February 2002 study.

· Fans looking for NFL material spend an average of 41 minutes per week on NFL Internet Network -- a 32% increase from the 31 minutes of February 2003. Across all sites, fans spend 127 minutes per week accessing NFL material – up from 113 minutes per week in February 2003.

· 75% of sports web users now have high-speed connections, resulting in fans visiting sports sites longer (3.4 hours/week vs. 2.8 hours per week for dial-up).

· Web/NFL.com usage is linked to increased viewership of NFL games. NFL.com users watch an average of seven hours of football per week -- three hours more than non-users.

· 76% of diehard fans (rate avidity as 9 or 10 on 1-10 scale) visit NFL Internet Network in a typical week, spending an average of 75 minutes online.

An industry-high 63% of sports website users looking for NFL information visit NFL Internet Network in a typical week -- up from 57% in Feb. 2003.

Source: Copernicus, Sports Website Usage & Performance 2005 Tracking Study
Category (1995) (2005)
Website Name NFL Sidelines NFL.com
Web Address Nflhome.com NFL.com
Internet Users 20 million in U.S. 162 million in U.S.
Internet Connection No Broadband 75% of NFL.com users have Broadband.
Visitors (Traffic) 50,000 on NFL Draft weekend 1995 4.9 million on draft weekend 2004; Avg. of 13.3 million unique/users per month in 2004 NFL season.
Audio Content 0 Live audiocasts of NFL games; audio coverage of press conferences and other events.
Video Content 0 Approximately 1,000 total pieces per year from NFL Films and NFL Network
Fantasy Football Games 0 4
Analysts 1 (Gil Brandt) 14 (Troy Aikman, Gil Brandt, Vic Carucci, Dr. Cheeks, Cris Collinsworth, Gregg Easterbrook, Boomer Esiason, Pat Kirwan, Marv Levy, Adam Schefter, Shannon Sharpe, Phil Simms + an active coach & player each season).
Sponsors/Advertisers 4 25+
E-Commerce 0 More than 30,000 products available on NFLShop.com.

NFL.com is produced and hosted in partnership with SportsLine.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLN), a leading global Internet sports media company and publisher of CBS SportsLine.com.