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THE SECRET WORLD OF SAM KING’ Premiere Date Announced and Opening Acts Confirmed

New York, US and London, UK – Bebo today announced the first line up of artists set to feature in its new production, The Secret World Of Sam King, which premieres on Wednesday 6th August.

The online drama, a first between a social network and music company, revolves around junior ‘facilities’ employee, Sam King, who from his base at Universal Music secretly founds his own start-up label in the post room.

Drawing on real-life record company experiences and filmed at Universal Music UK’s offices in West London, confirmed acts appearing in the first few weeks include the Sugababes, The Automatic, Sam Sparro, and The Saturdays, with the US stars, the Jonas Brothers, marking the premiere with a cameo role.  Some of the initial storylines also see Sam visit Ibiza Rocks as part of an integration with show sponsor, Sony Ericsson as well as the V Festival to tie in with fellow sponsor Virgin Mobile.

Produced by Universal Music UK’s production arm Globe Productions in partnership with Monkey Kingdom; The Secret World Of Sam King will upload 3-5 minute episodes daily on Bebo, a format made successful by stable mates on the social network KateModern and Sofia’s Diary. For a sneak preview, go to http://www.bebo.com/samking

Iain Funnell, General Manager, Globe Productions commented: “Users will experience a truly interactive world. The drama will be the centrepiece and will be set within the walls of a major music company with characters drawn from real life company staff plus guest appearances and walk-ons drawn from the music industry’s biggest roster of artists. It will make The Secret World of Sam King a truly unique entertainment experience.”

Joanna Shields, President AOL People Networks and CEO Bebo went on to add: “The Secret World of Sam King was developed for the ‘Bebo Generation’.  Working closely with our partners at Universal Music and Globe Productions, we are creating new opportunities for musicians and artists to interact and connect with the youth audience within the context of a great drama. Following on from the success of KateModern, The Gap Year and Sofia’s Diary, Bebo continues to pioneer an entirely new entertainment category.”

The main cast of five include Katie Love (Sam’s love interest), Johny Pitts (Sam’s best friend, trying to break into radio and has designs on Lizzie), Greg Parker (a young, ambitious A&R scout who also is Sam’s nemesis), Lizzie (PA to the CEO at Universal who has a crush on Sam) and of course Sam King.  Further, characters Katie and Johny will feature in spin-off programming formats “Katie’s Love-in” and a radio podcast respectively, providing a rounded digital music experience.

Bebo is the world’s only global Social Media Network. This radical new vision for online media combines community, self-expression and entertainment to enable its users to consume, create, discover and share content through the Bebo website.  Unlike its competitors, Bebo offers access to a line-up of high quality programmes and entertainment from professional broadcasters, independent producers and other rights owners and gives users a simple set of tools to create their online media collection and communicate their tastes to everyone in their network.  Recent hit shows include the BAFTA nominated KateModern, Sofia’s Diary and GAP Year (co-produced by Endemol, who also produce Big Brother).  Founded in 2005 as an online community, Bebo has a membership of more than 45 million individuals worldwide and is geared towards an audience aged under 30, with the core of 16-24 year olds spending 2.14 billion minutes on the site per month.

NOTES TO EDITORS: About The Secret World of Sam King:  Tells the story of Sam King, a junior employee at Universal Records who starts his own record label in the mail room without the knowledge of his colleagues.  Hungry for success, King hopes for the day when he can take over from his rather obnoxious A&R boss Greg.  King makes no secret of the fact that he thinks he can do a much better job than Greg, especially since he feels his boss only got the job because his father was a recording artist.  Sam’s days are spent running around on errands for Greg, bumping into his favourite artists and doing whatever he can to get his own label off the ground.

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