Press Release

NetChannel Partners with ACCESS to Offer Internet Television Solution to Leading Worldwide Consumer Electronics Manufacturers

South San Francisco, CA - November 5, 1997 - The race to provide affordable Internet-enhanced television heats up today with a partnership announced between NetChannel, the Web-enhanced television service and ACCESS, Japan's leading developer of NetFront , a comprehensive suite of Internet software which can be embedded into Internet appliances.

The companies will jointly pursue business opportunities in Japan and the US, offering a complete solution to consumer electronics companies interested in manufacturing Internet-enhanced televisions by offering close integration between the ACCESS' NetFront and the NetChannel service.

"ACCESS is at the forefront of developing embedded thin-client technology which will open some exciting new possibilities for consumer electronics manufacturers developing Internet-enabled electronic devices," said Philip J. Monego, Sr., president and CEO of NetChannel.

"Based on open-platform architecture, NetChannel's world-class TV-centric Internet programming delivers exactly what most leading worldwide consumer electronics manufacturers have been demanding for a long time," said Mr. Toru Arakawa, president and CEO of ACCESS. "Partnering with NetChannel, ACCESS can offer a complete Internet television solution to manufacturers and, most importantly, consumers are getting an experience beyond traditional TV with personalized Web content delivered to their home front."

ACCESS' leadership position with Japan's electronics community and NetChannel's award-winning service and ties to the US consumer electronics industry will speed the growth of Internet-enhanced devices in Japan and the US by offering choice to a wide range of companies pursuing an open platform business model.

ACCESS is also one of the founding members of the Easy Internet Association (EIA), a Japanese association with more than 60 of Japan's leading consumer electronics manufacturers, which promotes technologies and open standards to enable the development of products for the emerging Internet appliance market.

NetChannel is a global company delivering service in the major markets of North America, Europe and, in the near future, Asia. The ACCESS announcement comes on the heels of NetChannel's recent launch in the United Kingdom. NetChannel's consumer electronics partners include Thomson Consumer Electronics, the largest manufacturer of televisions in the US and NetProducts of the UK.

ACCESS' NetFront is a modularized, comprehensive embedded software suite for designing consumer Internet appliances. NetFront offers system designers a cost-effective, turnkey solution with software modules and open APIs that consist of a WWW browser, Email, PPP, HTML parser, Internet and network communication modules, and RTOS. It offers a Java Virtual Machine (VM)-compliant module called JV-Lite, which is extremely compact, allowing very efficient use of even the smallest memory resources. Other key features include the support of HTML push broadcasting, security modules, Personal Information Manager (PIM) function, and a smart phone extension.

ACCESS will be demonstrating its NetFront platform featuring NetChannel at COMDEX, Nov. 17-21 in Las Vegas. The companies will announce consumer electronics' partners in the near future.

About ACCESS
ACCESS, with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, and an office in Santa Clara, California, is a leading Internet software company for the consumer information appliance industry. ACCESS' flagship product, NetFront, a popular platform for consumer information appliances, is a comprehensive embedded software suite for Internet ACCESS, electronic mail and network interface. Over hundreds of thousands of units of NetFront have been shipped and it is currently being licensed to Sharp, Mitsubishi Electric, Matsushita, and JVC for Internet-TVs; NEC, Sharp, Fujitsu, and Casio for word processors; EPSON for Intranet terminal; Seiko Instruments and Fujitsu for PDAs; and various manufacturers for cellular phones, PHS, car navigation systems and dedicated terminals. Since its inception, ACCESS has been profitable and has established close working relationships with leading worldwide consumer electronics companies.

About NetChannel
NetChannel's award-winning service personalizes, enhances and expands the television experience for consumers by using the Internet as a resource to deliver programming, communications and commerce. In July 1997, NetChannel was honored by the Interactive Services Association with an ICEY Award for Innovation in Interactive Television. NetChannel is the service provider for Thomson Consumer Electronics' new consumer Internet ACCESS device, the network computer. Thomson Consumer Electronics is the nation's leading manufacturer of color TVs and VCRs under the RCA, ProScan and GE brands. NetChannel is a strategic partner of Network Computer, Inc. (NCI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Oracle. NetChannel supports open platforms, offering choice to content partners, hardware partners and, ultimately, to consumers. Founded in 1996, the company employs a staff of 125, with offices in South San Francisco, Atlanta and London. NetChannel Europe, a wholly owned subsidiary of NetChannel Inc., is based in London. For more information please see NetChannel's Web site at http://www.netchannel.net. NetChannel is a trademark of NetChannel Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. NetChannel's logo, screen shots and photographs of executives are available to the media upon request.

*NetFront and JV-Lite are registered trademarks of ACCESS Co.,Ltd. in Japan.
*Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.
* NetChannel is a trademark of NetChannel Inc.All
*Other corporate and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.
Copyright(c)1997,1998 ACCESS Co.,Ltd. All rights reserved.