Fans of Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and Agatha Christie’s many other tightly-plotted mysteries need wait no longer – because from 10^th September, more than 40 of BBC Radio’s most popular Christie dramas will be available for download at Ztorm connected retailers www.cdon.com and www.medianow.se

Each drama features landmark performances from some of our best-loved actors.  John Moffatt is Hercule Poirot, exercising his ’little grey cells’ in inimitable style, and everyone’s favourite sharp-witted spinster sleuth, Miss Jane Marple, is brilliantly portrayed by June Whitfield.

The experience of a full cast radio drama – complete with atmospheric music and sound effects – will transport the listener straight to the scene of the crime; mingle with the suspects, sense the underlying tension, hear the crucial creak on the stairs…

With spoken word one of the most consistently downloaded genres for the iPod generation, these thrilling radio dramas are bound to become essential listening. Titles include: Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Mystery of the Blue Train and Murder at the Vicarage.

And to coincide with 2010’s Agatha Christie week celebrations (12-19 September) they are on offer at Ztorm connected retailers www.cdon.com and www.medianow.se at a special reduced price of 59 SEK/5.99 EUR until the end of September 2010!

###

About AudioGO Limited

AudioGO is the new name for BBC Audiobooks, the UK’s leading audiobook publisher and distributor. AudioGO was formed in July 2010 – its new owners, lead by Michael Kuhn, have ambitious and exciting plans for growth and expansion. The company is the UK market leader. It also has a successful, rapidly growing business in the US and a thriving international business. It has a heritage stretching back over 20 years based on BBC Radio content, but has built on that with the acquisitions of Cover to Cover and Chivers, brand leaders in fiction and particularly well known in libraries. The company now has a catalogue of thousands of audiobooks and established relationships with retailers and distributors around the world. AudioGo plans to expand its catalogue, its distribution channels, and to better exploit web and other emerging online retail opportunities.

Initially, over 250 of BBC Audio’s English language audiobooks will be available for digital download over summer 2010. The title assortment will thereafter continue to expand over the following months.

The catalogue will include classic titles such as “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen and “The Lord of the Rings Trilogy” by J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as cherished modern classic authors such as P.G. Wodehouse, Ruth Rendell and John le Carre. Dramatisations of “Fawlty Towers” based on the popular TV-series and narrated by the original cast will also be available. Not to be missed in August, will be the simultaneous release of Frederick Forsyth’s new International Bestseller “The Cobra”.

“We are delighted to introduce our first international publisher, BBC Audio,” said Anders Emblad, CEO of Ztorm. He continued “Finally our connected retailers will be able to respond to the increasing demand from consumers to offer English language audiobooks.”

Sue Bowen, International Content Sales Manager for BBC Audiobooks said: “We’re thrilled to further expand our global presence with such a prominent, leading service provider. Ztorm joins a growing list of Digital Service Providers offering BBC Audiobooks premium content around the world.”

Audiobooks purchased through any Ztorm connected retailer, including CDON, Com Hem, Ginza,MediaNow, ONOFF and Webhallen, can freely be transferred to any MP3 capable device, such as iPods or MP3 capable mobile phones.

###

The press release is also available in Swedish at Ztorm’s pressroom»

Firstly, we’ve served over 250 000 paying customers though our Ztorm connected retailers and, in doing so, we have delivered over half a million downloads/streams through our servers.

We have seen a ten-fold increase in activity in the first quarter of 2010 as compared to last year, which is a clear indication that Digital Distribution is on the rise.

www.oneplays.com

CDON is also running a special SEGA campaign throughout May with 30% discount on a number of titles and special weekend discounts with 66% off on a selected product. Titles included in the campaign are among others: Football Manager 2010, Empire: Total War, Napoleon: Total War, Iron Man and more: http://downloads.cdon.com/index.phtml?action=nav_page&navigation_id=24813

Also, 2K Games have discounts on Civilization III and IV with 50% off!

CDON Sweden, CDON Norway, CDON Denmark, CDON Finland, Spaceworld.no, Telia.se, BroadPark Games

Ztorm announced today its first implementation of loanable PC products via digital distribution for the National Libraries in Denmark in collaboration with DBC. The technology enables Danish library customers to loan PC games via the portal http://downlaan.spilogmedier.dk for a seven day period. After the loan period has expired, the game will be unavailable for play. The product catalogue currently consists of family oriented games from publishers such as KREA Medie, Language Club, Nordic Softsales, PAN Vision Games and Serious Games.

The digital distribution packaging method used in the DBC implementation is based on consumer loans, a “free to play” model. Ztorm’s extended platform can also be applied to any commercial product such as rentals.

“We are thrilled to be able to deliver the World’s first loan-enabled digital distribution system to DBC. The fact that library patrons can now borrow games from behind their PCs in the comfort of their own homes is very exciting,” said Anders Emblad, CEO of Ztorm. Emblad continued: “The commercial applications of this technology are endless and include Game Rentals and Pre-owned Digital Distribution which are extremely valuable to us in our ambition to be the most complete provider of digital distribution systems.”

DBC will showcase the system during the yearly Danish Library Association Convention taking place in Esbjerg, Denmark between March 24-26. A demo, produced by DBC, can be viewed below:

“Spilogmedier.dk is a great example of a fruitful and constructive partnership between DBC, Ztorm and the Danish libraries, where the libraries’ key skills in presenting and disseminating information plays optimally together with Ztorm’s and DBC’s skills of providing a stable, secure and user friendly distribution service.” said Heddi Mortensen, Director, Market department at DBC.

Mortensen stated: “Libraries are playing a vital role in many people’s lives, where games and ‘edutainment’ today have become a growing part of our culture. It is obvious that libraries should be leading in this area as well, and besides providing quality reviews on games, also give the loaners direct digital access to the games and multimedia programs. This new service will have big advantages for both the library’s loaners and the libraries themselves by strengthening their capability of meeting a growing demand of ‘loanable’ games and programs, which the libraries are facing– not least by kids and teenagers.”

The press release is also available in Swedish at Ztorm’s pressroom»

“We are very pleased to deliver the technical implementation of Silverlight in close collaboration with CDON.COM. CDON.COM has seen a fantastic growth of their VOD services during 2009 and it feels great to enable them to extend their services to Mac owners” says Anders Emblad, CEO of Ztorm. He continues: “One of the challenges of digital distribution is to constantly seek improved methods of delivering content in a end-consumer user friendly yet secure way, that meets the requirements from the content owners. We believe that the Silverlight technology is a close match for both parties.”

Silverlight enables streaming video material over the Internet via a browser plug-in with unobtrusive copyright protection (DRM). Older technologies previously utilized have been restricted to the operating system Windows and the web browser Internet Explorer while Silverlight can be installed on Pc’s as well as Mac’s. The video material can be played within a number of different web browsers.

“Up until recently we haven’t had the possibility to meet the security requirements of the content owners and cater to both PC and Mac users at the same time. It feels fantastic that the technologies are evolving so that Mac users can utilize our VOD-services which, we believe, is one of the best in the Nordic region” says CDON.COMs CEO Mikael Olander.

Ztorm is the Nordic region’s leading digital distributor and service provider. By becoming a Ztorm connected retailer via an API solution, companies can keep their current technical platforms while still having the ability to deliver competitive services for digital distribution.

The press release is also available in Swedish at Ztorm’s pressroom»

“Spaceworld is an excellent partner who has proven to be successful for over two decades; it’s very exciting to enable the first traditional games retailer in Norway to distribute digitally” says Anders Emblad, CEO of Ztorm. He continues: “2010 looks like the year digital distribution will finally move into the general consumer market in force and we believe there are many interesting synergies in combining the sales of both physical and digital products”.

Ztorm is the Nordic region’s leading digital distributor and service provider. By becoming a Ztorm connected retailer via an API solution, companies can keep their current technical platforms while still having the ability to deliver competitive services for digital distribution.

“Digital downloads is a perfect addition to our current range of products. The whole process with Ztorm has been excellent, and we are very satisfied with the customer responses so far. We had no way of knowing whether this would be a success or not, as there are several other large providers of digital downloads, but so far the sales have surpassed our expectations” says Tom Asker Christensen, IT-Manager at Spaceworld.

The press release is also available in Swedish at Ztorm’s pressroom»