BERTRANGE, Luxembourg, April 22, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Metro International S.A. ("Metro") (Nasdaq:MTROA) (Nasdaq:MTROB), the international newspaper group, today announced the launch of Metro Radio in Sweden on April 22. Metro Radio will be the world's first fully interactive radio station with all the music directly selected by the public.
A press conference is being held today at Metro's Swedish office at Kammakargatan 46 in Stockholm at 12:00 noon. Niklas Steenberg (Metro Radio Project Leader), Anders Kvarby (Managing Director of Metro Nordic) and Sakari Pitkanen (Editor in Chief of Metro Nordic) will be available to answer questions.
The new Radio channel will be broadcast in the Stockholm area on the 101.9 FM frequency and play adult contemporary popular music and commercials 24 hours a day. The Metro newspaper will advertise the day's play list and an SMS identification code for each track, inviting readers to send text messages and vote for the tracks that they want to listen to. The play list and SMS voting codes will also be advertised on www.metro.se and include a premium rate phone number on which votes can be registered, and the station will run regular on-air promotions encouraging listeners to chose their favourite song.
New programme formats will be added over time, together with presenters, but the focus will remain on interactive content featuring games, competitions and voting.
The new station will work very closely with Metro's loyalty club, Club Metro, which has 385,000 members in Sweden alone. Club Metro will assist in driving traffic to the three media platforms - newspapers, radio and the Internet.
Pelle Tornberg, President & CEO of Metro International, commented: "This is a natural extension of the strong Metro brand and provides our readers with a unique ability to select their own entertainment. The packaging of print and radio media is a well-established and successful combination. Radio's hugely popular drive time slots command substantial shares of listening and complement Metro's focus on delivering tightly packaged news and entertainment to the young urban commuter."
"This initiative will add both reach and bandwidth to the Metro concept, which is already embodied in Sweden's largest daily morning newspaper. It will also open up new revenue streams in the form of radio airtime advertising and a share in revenues from telecom operators benefiting from the anticipated surge in SMS and telephone calls. We expect to be able to roll out this concept in other markets."
Metro is the world's largest free newspaper, publishing and distributing 23 editions in 15 countries in 13 languages: Stockholm (Metro), Prague (Metro), Gothenburg (Metro), Hungary (Metro), the Netherlands (Metro), Helsinki (Metro), Malmo (Metro), Santiago (Publimetro), Philadelphia (Metro), Toronto (Metro Today), Rome (Metro), Milan (Metro), Warsaw (Metropol), Athens (Metrorama), Montreal (Metro), Barcelona (Metro Directe), Boston (Metro), Madrid (Metro Directo), Copenhagen (MetroXpress), Paris (Metro), Marseille (Metro), Lyon (Metro) and Hong Kong (Metropolis Daily).
Metro International S.A. 'A' and 'B' shares are listed on the NASDAQ National Market and on the Stockholmsborsen O-List under the symbols MTROA and MTROB.
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