Streamcheck customers who use Windows Media 9 Series will be able to benefit from its high-quality audio and video quality and dramatically improved playback experience, with Fast Streaming technology that can deliver an instant-on, always-on streaming for broadband users and dramatic improvements for dial-up users.

"Streamcheck's innovative support of Windows Media 9 Series means that a full-featured quality-assurance system is available already for this new technology," said Jonathan Usher, director of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft. "By supporting Windows Media 9 Series, Streamcheck is ensuring that its customers can get the measurement data they need for the latest digital media technology available today."

Streamcheck was recently selected as the provider of quality testing for Microsoft's new WM9S Hosting Provider Program, a rigorous certification program that will help content providers make more informed decisions about hosting providers. To receive certification, providers must pass a test administered by Streamcheck and show that they have the technical expertise and infrastructure to deliver Windows Media 9 Series content with high reliability and quality.

"Part of our mission at Streamcheck is to keep pace with the latest innovations in streaming technology," said Jason Bigue, CTO of Streamcheck. "By adding support for Windows Media 9 Series, we are allowing content owners and hosting providers to bring their systems up to speed with the latest technology so that they can reap the benefit of new innovations."

About Streamcheck
Streamcheck provides end-to-end measurement and monitoring solutions for streaming media, helping customers deliver their message with consistent quality and reliability. Streamcheck's family of services provides 24x7 monitoring, diagnostic tools and customizable reports. Streamcheck offers an objective way to demonstrate quality to customers, advertisers and partners. Streamcheck's distributed network of measurement devices ("Scanners") has performed millions of individual checks on streams of all types and covers major cities in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan. To learn more, visit www.streamcheck.com.

About Windows Media
Windows Media is the leading digital media platform, used by consumers, content providers, solution providers, software developers and corporations throughout the world. The Windows Media 9 Series platform includes Windows Media Player 9 Series; Windows Media Services 9 Series, the powerful streaming server feature in Windows .NET Server 2003 for distributing content; Windows Media Encoder 9 Series for content creation; Windows Media Audio and Video 9 Series for the best-quality audio and video; Windows Media DRM for protecting content; and the Windows Media Software Development Kit for software developers to develop digital media products and services. Windows Media Player, available in 26 languages, is now the leading media player. More information about Windows Media can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software -- any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft, Windows Media and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.