PSINet Ventures, the corporate ventures unit of PSINet Inc., is making an unspecified investment in Reelplay.com, a business-to-business online marketplace for visual entertainment content. Under the terms of the agreement, PSINet , a global Internet hosting services firm, will also provide a variety of managed application services for Reelplay and its clients.

The Los Angeles-based Reelplay was launched in October 1999, and its services to buyers and sellers of film and television products worldwide include showcasing film trailers, TV promotion reels, synopses, stills, credits and key art as well as providing other premium services. Other investors include Softbank, Waterview Advisors and Sycamore Ventures.

Stephen Liu and Dennis Young, Reelplay co-founders and co-presidents, said in a company statement, "As Reelplay transitions to an application service provider model, we believe we have just made a massive leap forward towards our vision of providing robust, cutting-edge e-business services to the world's film and television companies."

Reelplay has developed what it claims is the largest database of film and television products in the country, showcasing more than 12,000 entertainment products, and has created some 3,000 Web sites on behalf of the film and television producers, distributors, and sales agents who utilize the service.

Reelplay's clients include such film and television companies as New Line Cinema, Lions Gate, Summit Entertainment, Overseas Filmgroup, E! Entertainment, and Hearst Entertainment.

"With 1.3 terabytes of storage, Reelplay now has the capacity to host half a million film and television trailers," added Reelplay chief technology officer Doug Coulter. "More importantly, Reelplay now has an extremely robust and scalable infrastructure that will be able to handle the demands of the global entertainment industry."

John Muleta, PSINet Ventures president, said, "We believe Reelplay will be a significant player in the online B2B entertainment space. Given the inherently global nature of the film and television industry, we believe an investment in this technology to be potentially advantageous."

With headquarters in Ashburn, Va., PSINet is an Internet carrier providing global e-commerce infrastructure, end-to-end IT solutions and a full suite of retail and wholesale Internet services through wholly owned PSINet subsidiaries. Services are provided on PSINet-owned and operated fiber, satellite, Web-hosting and switching facilities providing direct access in more than 900 metropolitan areas in 29 countries on five continents.

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