ICQ Founders Roll Out Alpha Version of Online TV Platform

TEL AVIV, December 10: Nir Erlich and Sefi Vigiser, the
cofounders of the instant messaging platform ICQ, have announced the launch for
alpha testers of Knocka TV, an Internet television network for both
user-generated and professional content.

Knocka (www.knocka.tv) is a browser-based, online live-TV
platform for creating and enabling TV channels and real-time activities. Each
channel on the platform offers content generated by independent professional
and non-professional producers that is packaged professionally by Knocka and
streamed via simultaneous, linear netcast.

The company is billing itself as the next level in
user-created programming, in which the users are actively engaged in the
production and ranking of content submitted by community producers. Users
decide which videos are shown on the Knocka channels. Other community features
built into the site include text chat, video chat and instant messaging.
Broadcasts will also be supplemented by live interactive events in which
viewers participate and manipulate program content via webcam in real time,
together with a live audience.

Additional services that are still in testing are a
video-on-demand service and the Ranking Arena, a section of the website where
users can meet and vote on videos not yet added to the linear lineup (the
linear channel has its own real-time, live voting system). The company has not
yet announced a date for beta testing of public launch.

Among the professional producers Knocka has already secured
content agreements with are Ministry of Sound, The Patrice O’Neal Show, Aniboom, Break a Leg, Mondo Media, Shocking Humor
and Unleashed TV, along with a host of other independent content producers.

Knocka has three channels available at launch: Knocka One,
which features fast-paced premium programming and special live events;
Kilowatt, Knocka’s own music channel featuring new artists and clips; and
Kandy, featuring videos of aspiring and professional models supported by live
voting. The playlist for each channel is created based on community preferences
and programmed by Knocka TV prior to broadcast. The company intends to launch
additional channels based on community input.

Based in Herzliya Pituach, Israel, Knocka was founded by
former executives of instant messaging platform ICQ, one of the first
text-based messaging services online. ICQ was sold to AOL in 1998 for $408
million.

“The essence of the Knocka revolution is in our slogan, ‘The
People Have Taken Over,’” said Nir Erlich, the cofounder and CEO of Knocka TV.
“The user-generated content paradigm shift spearheaded by YouTube and others,
was the first step in democratizing video over the web in terms of content
production. However, it demanded a great deal from viewers in terms of finding
good content, which was done chiefly by viral means. Knocka believes viewers
want an easier way to locate the best the web has to offer. Our interactive
rating platform lets users determine programming and share that information
with others. And there are many more interactive features on the way. To join
the community, all anyone has to do is go to Knocka.tv, register and get
active.”

Sefi Vigiser, the cofounder of Knocka TV, added: “When ICQ
pioneered instant messaging, we were fulfilling a need people had to share
text-based information over the Web. Today, we’re doing the same thing with the
new breed of Internet users who have evolved along video on
demand—sophisticated viewers who know what they like and a huge pool of
talented indie content producers—and still meeting the need to share and
create together. We’ve built the platform—now we’re opening it up to the
community to create new formats, channels and content. Knocka TV is uniting
creative people from all over the web to produce the first user generated
professional TV network. No programming execs, no network brass. That’s the
Knocka revolution.”

—By Ned Berke