BREAKING DOWN THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: African American comedian De'Leon and Hispanic Actor Turic Deliver Laughs with Meaning in Television Internet's Sitcom, a sitcom

The Television Internet Broadcasting Network, a pioneer of Internet series programming, announced today that its new series Sitcom, a sitcom hopes to breakdown America's digital divide through the use of urban storylines, second-generation quality broadband programming and wireless deployment.

In a press conference streamed online from televisioninternet.com, Sitcom star, African-American comedian, Lunden De'Leon announced today that she will be part of Internet history as Sitcom becomes the first situation comedy series for the Internet. "In shooting Sitcom, we constantly knew that, from the cutting edge storylines, to tackling serious issues, the show will impact internet usage among inner city youths more than any streaming video content before it."

"The statistics of the expanding digital divide in America are staggering," says series creator and writer Anthony Kling. "Young children needed someone to look up to on the internet. The characters that Lunden and Hispanic actor Eric Turic play fit that image - funny, smart and successful."

The digital divide still remains pervasive in Amercia. The U.S. Department of Commerce found in 2000 that almost twice as many White (46.1%) and Asian American/Pacific Islander (56.8%) households had internet access compared to Black (23.5%) and Hispanic (23.6%) households.

Kling believes that not only Sitcom's urban themes but also its use of (1) "second generation quality broadband programming" and (2) wireless deployment will combat this digital divide.

First, Sitcom will launch what Television Internet calls "second-generation quality broadband programming". Following eighteen-month research and development testing, Television Internet has confirmed that Sitcom will aire for broadband users with a visual clarity never before deployed by a netcaster on the Windows Media platform. Netcitizens will see the lowest level of video degradation for a net original program.

As explained by De'Leon to the press, Television Internet's research and deployment first began during the shooting of its first series Muscle Beach back in the late 1990s. Through the production and eventual deployment of Muscle Beach, Television Internet isolated certain production and encoding traits that when modified enhanced the quality of streamed video and audio measurably.

Television Internet was able to achieve this second-generation quality broadband programming for two main reasons. First Television Internet creates its content original for the net. Television Internet does not encode preexisting movie or TV content for internet audiences. Second, Television Internet streams its content itself. Television Internet Streaming Media services, established in 1999, will be deploying the new series Sitcom. Sitcom can be viewed at full screen with rates as high as 300K with stereo sound.

Television Internet believes that enhanced net-video quality will spur greater usage among young adults. "If you don't pay attention to the quality of video offered to lower-speed users, you don't care about the digital divide and people who can't afford broadband and have to settle for a dial-up modem."

Second, De'Leon also announced that Sitcom will serve as the flagship for Television Internet's anticipated deployment of Television Mobile. Under the product name TelevisionMobile.com, viewers can soon watch Sitcom on the less than hand full of wireless devices worldwide that support the Windows Media player.

"We believe that in the next five years we'll see a faster rise in internet usage in the inner cities on wireless devices than PCs", says Turic, who plays in Sitcom New York born writer Giovanni Messina.

"The current Microsoft player will enable owners of the Compaq iPAQ Pocket PCs, HP Jornadas and Casio Cassiopeias the opportunity to download to their Pocket PC and play Television Internet hit shows like Sitcom ", according to Turic.

"Pocket PC 2002 has a great advantage in the marketplace because it is designed to be the most connected and expandable PDA available," says Chris Hill, a product manager at Microsoft. "We are pleased that the Television Internet Broadcasting Network is taking advantage of the new feature functionalities of Pocket PC 2002 in producing Sitcom for the Windows Media platform, enabling to watch half-hour episodes, even hour and a half movies of the week, with full screen, stereo sound."

Conquering the digital divide has been consistent with the social awareness behind Sitcom. The series has been applauded for having the first African-American actress to star in an original series for the Internet and for providing the hearing impaired a new form of closed captioning for watching the comedy.

"It means more to be in a sitcom that impacts people's lives," says De'Leon. Sitcom hopes to begin impacting the way we watch video online when the series premieres on televisioninternet.com in the coming weeks.

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Image Links:
De'Leon: http://televisioninternet.com/sitcom/photos/b14-11.jpg
Turic: http://televisioninternet.com/sitcom/photos/g11-8.jpg