Tornado Group PLC (“LSE: TDO”), Europe's leading Digital Service Provider, and Virgin Megastore France announced today that they will be working together to sell digital music on the Virgin Megastore France website, www.virginmega.fr. Virgin Megastore France is the second largest retailing group in entertainment and cultural products in France, part of the Lagardere Group. The website, set to launch in Spring 2002, will enable consumers to access digital content in two different ways: The download service enables consumers to search for, purchase and download music in digital form on a ‘pay per download’ basis while the ‘subscription service’ will enable consumers to pay a monthly subscription and gain access to tracks. Virgin Megastore France also intends to expand its product offering to include games downloads during 2002 – this will be digitally fulfilled by Tornado as well.
Designed for digital distribution only, the new website is to provide a fantastic consumer experience. While simple to use, it will also leverage Virgin Megastore off-line marketing tools, including the VIP loyalty program fully available on the site.

Tornado will provide Virgin Megastore France with the technical infrastructure to enable both services. The download service will utilise technology including the Tornado Digital Media Distribution System (“DMDS”), which enables the Tornado and Virgin Megastore France technology to communicate.

Tornado Subscription Infrastructure Services (“SIS”) will provide the capability for the Virgin Megastore France Subscription Service and the delivery of its content, encompassing the hosting and content provision services, digital rights management capability and membership enrolment tools.

As soon as the site goes live, Tornado will start to receive revenue from both individual downloads and will also obtain a fee for delivery of the content on the Virgin Megastore France subscription service.

“Thanks to Tornado technology, Virgin Megastore France will continue to offer innovative ways to bring cultural products to a wider audience” commented Laurent Fiscal, e-business director of Virgin Megastore France.

“The Virgin Megastore France offering is the first of its kind - A high street retailer simultaneously offering a pay per download service and a subscription service to their customers,” commented Neil Ferris, Commercial Director of Tornado Group PLC. “We are delighted to be providing Virgin Megastore France with the technology for the two services. Our ability to do so will enable them to offer a choice to their customers in the way they access digital music and deliver a compelling customer experience.”