• by March 14, 2002

While there is no question the Olympics had a significant impact on the television ratings of NBC and its cable news affiliates MSNBC and CNBC, the Media Metrix U.S. Top 50 Web and digital media property ratings for February 2002 show that the games had a similar impact on the MSNBC online news channel.

Driven largely by its Olympics websites, the MSNBC online news channel increased 26.3% - from 16.0 million unique visitors in January 2002 to 20.2 million in February 2002 - further increasing its lead over other digital news sources.

"Each year, several events serve as a litmus test for online media's increasing role in cross-media promotions and programming," said Charles Buchwalter, VP of media research at JMM. "This year the Super Bowl and the winter Olympics both fell in February, but the 17 days of Olympic programming provided a unique case study of the emerging synergies between network television, cable and the Internet."

Specifically, MSNBC's traffic was intensified by: NBCOlympics.com, which increased from 319,000 to 6.7 million unique visitors between January and February 2002; Saltlake2002.com, which increased from 1.1 million to 3.5 million visitors; and OLYMPICS.COM, which increased from 508,000 to 3.1 million visitors.

Olympics Drive Debut Of New Sites

The Olympics were also responsible for spawning several of the entrants into the February 2002 Media Metrix Top Newcomers list - which includes sites that appeared in the monthly ratings for the first time and had a minimum of 500,000 unique visitors. AT&T's Olympics contest site, Attperform.com, attracted 761,000 unique visitors by offering prizes such as free tickets to Olympics events. Olympic.org captured 756,000 unique visitors by allowing surfers to "relive the exploits of the athletes who have become legends." Usolympicteam.com, which had 734,000 unique visitors, contains bios and video clips of American Olympians. Finally, Roots.com garnered 679,000 unique visitors by serving as the official outfitter of both the U.S. and Canadian Olympic Teams.

Additional Highlights of the Media Metrix February 2002 Internet Audience Ratings:

-· Internet Usage Continues to Grow - Unique users of the Internet grew 1.9%, from 110.0 million in January 2002 to 112.0 million in February 2002.

-· Key Growth Categories - Among notable trends this month are traffic increases to site categories relating to Valentine's Day, taxes and vacations. Tax sites was this month's top growth category with its audience reach increasing 29.3%, from 5.8 to 7.5% of Internet users. Flowers, gifts and greetings sites increased 17.6%, from 24.5 to 28.8% of Internet users. And hotel and resort sites increased 16.0%, from 9.4% to 10.9% of Internet users. Other key growth categories include: personals sites, which increased 13.8%, from 16.0 to 18.2% of Internet users; e-cards, which increased 12.3%, from 28.5 to 32.0% audience reach; and luxury goods sites, which increased 10.4%, from 6.7 to 7.4% audience reach.

-· Top Newcomers - In addition to the Olympics sites above, top newcomers in February 2002 include: mLife.com, the AT&T Wireless site, with 2.1 million unique visitors, and snack-chip sites Doritos.com and Torengos.com, with 671,000 and 640,000 visitors, respectively. Valentine's Day helped drive visitors to: Jewelrynetwork.com, with 1.7 million visitors; Flower.com, with 1.2 million visitors; Bhteddybear.com, with 1.1 million visitors; Bluefootbear.com, with 981,000 visitors; and dating site 1stdating.com, with 548,000 visitors.

-· Top Gaining Digital Media Properties - The top gaining digital media properties in February 2002 include: Intuit.com, which increased 45.8% to 6.2 million unique visitors; IRS.gov, which increased 44.3% to 10.8 million visitors; and Turbotax.com, which increased 43.0% to 5.3 million visitors.