October 26th, 2001
For Immediate Release

BusinessWeek To Launch 1st Subscription-based Webcast

Government and Business Leaders to Address New Business Models Post - Sep. 11.
Decision to Webcast an Endorsement of Streaming Media

Hong Kong - October 26th, 2001 - BusinessWeek is proud to announce it will partner with Business to Business Broadcasting Pte. Ltd. ("B2Bcast"), the creator of high quality end-to-end streaming media solutions, to webcast BusinessWeek's Fifth Annual CEO Forum. The webcast will be available on demand starting October 27th.

This partnership marks the first time that a major international business conference is being offered online to a global audience on a paid subscription basis.

"It makes sense to webcast BusinessWeek's CEO Forum at this time to extend its audience beyond those who are taking part at the event" commented Alan Lammin, VP and Managing Director of BusinessWeek in Asia. "Companies are cutting back on corporate travel and in the current environment, many executives cannot easily hop on a plane to attend high level executive events in other parts of the world. With webcasting, they don't have to. Businessmen, professionals, academics, government officials -- they can all learn from our prestigious line up of speakers without leaving their offices or homes."

The on-demand webcast of the Fifth Annual CEO Forum, which takes place in Hong Kong on October 23/24, will initially run for two months starting October 27th. Passwords, which enable viewers to watch the forum over a one-month period, are available at www.businessweek.com and www.b2bcast.com.

Featured speakers include incoming WTO chief Supachai Panitchpakdi, Hong Kong Chief Secretary Donald Tsang, Thailand Deputy Prime Minister Pongpol Adireksarn, former Philippine President Fidel Ramos, former US Secretary of Commerce Mickey Kantor as well as chairmen and CEOs from Proctor & Gamble (USA), Hang Lung Dev. (Hong Kong), ExxonMobile (China), Powerchip Semiconductor (Taiwan) and more.

Speakers will examine ways in which they are adapting to a world which has shifted from unbridled optimism to introspective pessimism, from overdrive to drag and from the economic to the geopolitical. Among the specific topics, Supachai Panitchpakdi, Mickey Kantor, Deutsche Bank Chief Economist Michael Spencer and IMF Regional Director Kunio Saito will examine the post-September 11th decline in global trade and China's entry into the World Trade Organisation. Proctor & Gamble Chairman John Pepper will present a case study on how the international retail giant brings a product to the global market.

A ticket to attend the Fifth Annual CEO Forum is priced at US$1,500. Registration for the webcast is US$295 and can be purchased at the same web addresses where the webcast will be carried, www.businessweek.com and www.b2bcast.com.

"Executives and professionals don't have the time to travel to all the conferences they would like to attend," says Alex Feldman, B2Bcast's CEO. "A password to watch this webcast costs 80 percent less than the cost of a ticket to attend in person. Plus you save on travel and accommodations. So watching the webcast is really a convenient cost-effective option."

"Pay-per-view programming is the future of streaming media over the internet," Feldman adds. "The key is offering viewers premier content, like that of the BusinessWeek CEO Forum, that they can't find anywhere else."

Streaming media is a technology that allows companies to broadcast video and audio files over the internet without downloading them to a user's computer. B2Bcast will stream BusinessWeek's Fifth Annual CEO Conference in multiple bit-rates, allowing viewers with broadband connections to watch video from the forum and individuals with dial-up modems to listen to the internet radio broadcast.

About BusinessWeek

BusinessWeek is the world's largest business magazine with a worldwide circulation of 1.15 million and a global audience of more than 5.3 million readers. BusinessWeek is published weekly by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. and is distributed in 130 countries. In Asia-Pacific, BusinessWeek publishes the Asian edition and a local language edition for China - BusinessWeek/China which is celebrating its 15th Anniversary at the end of this year.

BusinessWeek's Asian edition was rated the most widely read pan-regional business publication in Asia by the ATMS 2000 survey and has been rated Most Important Business Magazine on ABRS 2001. BusinessWeek is also the Winner of the 2001 Society of Publishers in Asia Award for Editorial Excellence in Magazines. The magazine's audited circulation has grown by over 118% since 1994 to a current circulation of 80,000 copies. BusinessWeek's editorial team in Asia consists of 13 editors and reporters in news offices around the region, including bureaus in Beijing, Bombay, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo.

About B2Bcast

B2BCast (www.b2bcast.com) offers companies, hi-quality end-to-end streaming media solutions for effective corporate and consumer communication. Combining the power of TV & Radio with the reach of the internet, B2Bcast webcasts boost sales and save on travel & communication costs. Founded by seasoned media professionals, B2Bcast has created solutions for industry leaders including Business Week, DBS Bank, Arthur Andersen, Nokia, Hewlett Packard, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Infocomm Development Authority (iDA) of Singapore, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) and CISCO Systems, and has webcast global leaders like Lee Kuan Yew, Mahathir Mohamad, Michael Dell, James Murdoch, Zhu Rongji, Phil Condit and Craig Barrett.

Ends

For more information contact:
BusinessWeek: Emma Fung - emma_fung@businessweek.com Ph: +852-2912-3083
B2Bcast: Alex Feldman - afeldman@b2bcast.com Ph: +65-227-7907