Record-Breaking Capeside Traffic Drives 'Dawson's Creek' Site Into New Season

Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment's online companion to "Dawson's Creek" (dawsonscreek.com) gears up for the show's October 4 season premiere with exciting new features following a summer of record-breaking traffic to the site. With the success of its award-winning Dawson's Desktop, and most recently with the creation of the Summer Diaries during the show's hiatus, site traffic has reached an all-time high, tripling in size over the past six months. Now in its third year, the "Dawson's Creek" site embarks on another term of crafting unique content for Capeside with weekly "rotating" Desktops offering insight into more main characters leading the charge.

"Staying fresh to the savvy Internet audience is a huge challenge," said Chris Pike, Director of Content Development, "The Summer Diaries were just one example of how, even during an extended hiatus, we were able to offer original storylines created exclusively for the site. Now, with our rotating Desktops and new schedule of events for this season, we are poised to continue the remarkable user excitement and momentum."

  New Season Line-Up

  -- Desktops Get New Spin
     Dawson's Desktop continues to grow with its expansion into weekly
     "rotating" Desktops.  While online fans have been privy to Dawson's
     Leery personal computer "desktop," snooping through his journal and
     emails since 1998, the new season marks the return of Joey's Desktop.
     Starting October 4, Web users can access the private desktop of Joey
     Potter before the desktop rotates to Pacey, Dawson and then Jen.

  -- Capeside High Online Yearbook
     Feel a part of the class!  Users can submit their own yearbook photos
     and candids to be considered for the Capeside High Yearbook, featuring
     a cool combination of photos from lucky fans and CHS students.

  -- Class Notes
     The Capeside High student body gets red-faced as private Class Notes
     passed to friends, some silly, some serious, end up in the hands of
     troublemaker Drue Valentine.  Visitors to the site will now be privy to
     those notes while the main characters bite their nails waiting to see
     whose secrets are next to be revealed ...  And the mayhem doesn't stop
     there as Drue begins to report his own perspective on what's up in
     Capeside.  The Drue Report will also offer a feature for users to share
     the low-down from their own small towns.

  -- Turning a New Page
     Capeside.Net, the fictional ISP, will now have revamped start pages for
     all the main characters.  Home pages will also be redesigned for
     characters, reflecting their different personalities and offering fun
     surprise features throughout the season.  Check out Joey's Away From
     Home Page, highlighting a travelogue of her adventures on the high seas
     with Pacey, and then look out for what's in store for the other
     characters in the following weeks.

  -- CapeNet Rebels
     CapeNet, the CHS student newspaper, will lose its fictional school
     sponsorship, becoming an edgier publication run independently by the
     students.

  -- More Fun
     As the season progresses, fans can stop by the site all season long to
     see what's new.  Chats will be offered in the voice of the main
     characters for even more insight into their innermost thoughts, and
     more surprises are set to pop-up periodically on the character pages
     and throughout the site.  And now that the Desktops will be accessible
     on all PC, Mac, and AOL browsers 4.0 and above, the trip to Capeside is
     just a click away.

  About Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment

Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment (SPDE), an operating unit of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), oversees the activities of SPE's digital production and online assets including Sony Pictures Imageworks and Sony Online Entertainment. SPDE focuses on three areas: 1) producing and developing visual effects and computer-generated imaging (CGI), digital character animation, and original content for motion picture, television, online and PlayStation audiences; 2) tapping SPE's film and television libraries and its talent relationships to develop new forms of online content, games and interactive programming; and 3) leading SPE's efforts to provide video-on-demand, interactive television and the distribution of other forms of digital content and services over the emerging broadband networks.

CONTACTS: Lisa DeLucia, 310-840-8955, ldelucia@sonypictures.com, or Susan Wright, 310-840-8178, swright@sonypictures.com, both of Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment.

SOURCE: Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment

Contact: Lisa DeLucia, 310-840-8955, ldelucia@sonypictures.com, or Susan
Wright, 310-840-8178, swright@sonypictures.com, both of Sony Pictures Digital
Entertainment

Website: http://www.dawsonscreek.com/