Associated Press

ATLANTA, GA (Sunday, April 9, 2006) -- The 30-second parody of Brokeback Mountain starring animated bunnies shattered the previous record for views of the series of the bunny movie parodies on Starz on Demand and Vongo, Starz Entertainment Group LLC reported today.

The bunny parody of Brokeback has generated approximately 1.4 million views in just four weeks since making its premiere -- 75 per cent more than the previous top performing Bunny parody, A Christmas Story, the company said. The shorts are the creation of animator Jennifer Shiman.

"This record-breaking performance demonstrates that the enormously popular bunny shorts are still hopping as they enter their second year," said Starz Entertainment Group vice president of on demand services, William Hoagland.

Since the bunnies made their debut on Starz on Demand in April 2005, they have been requested for viewing a total of more than 4 million times on Starz on Demand and the recently launched Vongo broadband download service. In addition, approximately 6.4 million more viewings of the bunnies came in the form of bonus material in front of full length motion pictures available on Starz on Demand and Vongo. Two viral campaigns generated an additional 2.2 million viewings.

"The success of the bunny parodies demonstrates that in the world of on-demand a hit show can be of any length," Hoagland said. "In on-demand we are not confined to the traditional half hour or hour long format. At Starz, we have made a major effort to develop programming with a wide range of lengths -- from the 30-second bunny shorts to two minute 'Fast Forward' movie reviews, to the 9-minute 'B-Side' short programs. This is the wave of the future for programming as viewers increasingly migrate to the convenience of on demand viewing."

Prior to the record-breaking performance by the Brokeback Mountain parody, the previous B.B.O (bunny box office) champs were (rounded to the nearest thousand):

1) A Christmas Story -- 800,000 views

2) Pulp Fiction -- 473,000

3) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre -- 452,000

4) Freddy vs. Jason -- 411,000

5) King Kong -- 339,000

Bunny artwork available upon request from http://www.starz.com.