Today at the National Association of Broadcasters Electronic Media conference Vizrt Ltd announced that it will work with Microsoft Corporation to create a new graphics visualization and content provisioning offering for broadcasters. This solution will enable broadcasters to use aerial imagery and other technology, from Microsoft's Virtual Earth™ platform with the same control they are accustomed to through Viz|Curious World Maps. To hear more about this initiative, please visit Vizrt's NAB2006 booth located at SL1323.

"This is a hugely exciting initiative for our company, and for our customer who will benefit from this great new offering," says Halid Hatic, President of Sales for Viz|Curious Software. "We believe that Vizrt's world-leading on-air broadcast graphics systems and Microsoft's world-class resources for web based data and content delivery make an ideal combination."

The imagery and capabilities found in Microsoft's Virtual Earth platform combined with the unprecedented stylistic control of Viz|Curious World Maps, will offer broadcasters a ground-breaking creative opportunity. This agreement will provide Vizrt's customers with access to the kind of distribution scale only Microsoft can provide to make the most of the exciting opportunities presented in expanding content across multiple platforms, including TV, web and mobile. This initiative will enable broadcasters to reach and inform both existing and new audiences even more effectively.

"We are excited that Vizrt will integrate our powerful and immersive mapping technology into its industry-leading graphics solution for the broadcast industry," said Stephen Lawler, general manager of the Virtual Earth business unit at Microsoft. "This use of the Virtual Earth platform will help open new opportunities for the broadcast industry through the creative use of imagery and location-related information is key to helping people understand 'what it's really like there.'"