SYDNEY, June 16th, 2003 — JK Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter books and bestselling children’s author, is set to open an exclusive and intimate event to a global Net audience live on www.ninemsn.com.au/harrypotter on Friday, June 27, at 1am (Australian Eastern Standard Time) AEST.

Millions are expected to log on to see the author read from her new book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and answer questions from children around the world live at the unique “JK Rowling at the Royal Albert Hall” event.

Australian Harry Potter fans will have to brave the time zone difference and log onto ninemsn in time for the webcast starting at 1am (AEST) on Friday, June 27 (4pm, June 26 London time).

Tickets for the Royal Albert Hall event in London have been like gold dust with over 900 schools applying for the exclusive seats. Only 4000 children will be lucky enough to be at the event on June 26, when JK Rowling gives her only live interview about the most anticipated book of the decade - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, published at 12.01am on June 21.

But now thanks to the power of the Internet, millions more will be able to discover the magical secrets behind Harry’s latest adventures and those watching over broadband connections will be granted a truly wizard chance to see the webcast at its best. The online event follows on the back of record breaking MSN global webcasts of Madonna’s 2000 Brixton Academy gig and the webcast of Paul McCartney’s return to the Cavern Club in 1999.

Through the MSN global network, the webcast has the potential to reach children (and adult Harry Potter fans) in 34 countries, across six continents and in 18 different languages. It’s anticipated that many schools, clubs and families worldwide will gather together to watch the one-off webcast.

Children from all over the world will be invited to submit the question they’ve always wanted to ask about Harry, his friends, his adventures and Hogwarts at www.ninemsn.com.au/harrypotter. The best questions, some of which will be filmed, will be put to JK Rowling live on the night.

A number of questions will also be taken live from the Internet during the webcast and fed through to the author during the event – demonstrating the Web’s exciting real-time potential. In addition, Harry fans will be given the opportunity to win exclusive bookplates signed by JK Rowling herself in the run up to the webcast event.

The webcast will be streamed at four speeds (56k, 100k, 200k and 500k broadband speed) so fans all over the world will be able to join in the excitement regardless of their Internet connection and chat live to other fans around the world during the event. The webcast will also be archived for seven days following the event so that ardent fans can watch it again and again!



For further information please contact:

Samantha Herron - ninemsn (02) 9383 6114 or 0412 589 951