BackWeb to Provide Content Delivery and Notification Technology to NBC

Network Automatically Alerts News Managers at 215 NBC Stations of Special Reports via BackWeb Push Applicaton Server

SAN JOSE, Calif. — April 18, 2001 — BackWeb Technologies (Nasdaq: BWEB), a leading provider of push communications infrastructure for e-business, today announced that NBC has chosen BackWeb's content delivery and notification technology as the foundation for a new nationwide affiliate communications system. The new system provides NBC with a single communications infrastructure for alerting more than 215 NBC stations about upcoming special news reports and other interruptions in scheduled programming.

The BackWeb® Push Application Server enables NBC to automatically reach affiliates station managers, broadcast operations and news managers – no matter where they are located – with breaking news and other major developments. BackWeb's notification technology delivers time-sensitive alerts via desktop systems and laptops, email, and email-compliant pagers, and pushes the message from one device to the next until every recipient is contacted. BackWeb's technology replaces NBC's satellite-based alert system. NBC frequently alerts its stations of breaking news such as presidential announcements, and international events, as well as unscheduled changes to other programming. During heavy news periods, alerts can occur several times daily.

"Because every second counts in the 24/7 world of broadcast news, we wanted an Internet-based system that was scalable and flexible enough to instantly contact key people at every one of our stations and affiliates," said Sandi Resnikoff, chief technology officer at NBC. "BackWeb's powerful escalation feature enables us to literally seek out the intended recipient and ensure that he or she is prepared for the latest developments from NBC News."

The Push Application Server allows NBC to deliver messages to any number of users, and can be customized to send alerts to specific groups, regions or individuals. Working in concert with third-party 128-bit encryption, the server's escalation feature identifies whether a user has received a notification on his or her desktop computer. If not, the server reroutes the information and delivers it to the next-highest-priority device. Key affiliate personnel are able to customize the system to identify their preferred pager addresses, email accounts, email-to-pager addresses, and other information.

"Timing is everything for leading news organizations like NBC, and BackWeb's technology is designed specifically to deliver time-sensitive information instantly and reliably," said Eli Barkat, chairman and CEO of BackWeb Technologies. "BackWeb is proud to provide the push communications infrastructure that is helping to keep television stations around the country on top of the latest developments from NBC News. We look forward to working with NBC to help them derive even more value from the BackWeb Push Application Server."