Amazon.co.uk (www.amazon.co.uk), the UK's leading online store, and British Airways today announced a one-year sponsorship agreement for the airline's innovative new in-flight business/arts programme, Words.

The programme, available to all customers travelling on British Airways flights from 1st December 1999, will provide upbeat, informative features focused on arts, science, business and current affairs and will be presented by Lord Melvyn Bragg.

Each two-hour programme will contain a variety of interviews, book extracts and discussions from the world of the arts. The first programme will feature an interview with the fashion photographer Juergen Teller, as well as Martin Jarvis reading from Michael Frayn's Booker prize nominated novel Headlong. The programme will also include a round table discussion chaired by Melvyn Bragg, featuring Martha Fiennes, director of the new film Onegin, and Australian film director Jon Hewitt.

Well-respected arts 'guru', and South Bank Show presenter Melvyn Bragg will be hosting Words. As well as his experience as a radio and television broadcaster, novelist, biographer and playwright, Lord Bragg can now claim fame as being the most 'well travelled', man in the world, as Words is featured on all long-haul British Airways routes.

Articles from the programme will also appear on a special page on Amazon.co.uk. Visitors to the page will be able to buy any of the books or CDs that are featured in the programme from Amazon.co.uk's selection of 1.5 million book titles and 120,000 CD albums.

The programme is produced by the independent radio production company Somethin' Else, whose other credits include a further five in-flight channels for British Airways. Somethin' Else also brokered this innovative sponsorship deal between Amazon.co.uk and British Airways.

Colleen Byrum, managing director of Amazon.co.uk commented; "Definitive research shows that most air travellers prefer to relax and be entertained on flights rather than catch up with work. As a company renowned for providing a huge selection of books and music, Amazon.co.uk is pleased to be sponsoring a programme with such a great line up of features and a well respected presenter. Amazon.co.uk is also delighted to be joining forces with the world's favourite airline."

Martin George, head of marketing at British Airways said; "Words is yet another way British Airways has shown its commitment to innovative in-flight programming, specifically designed for passengers wanting high quality, thought-provoking entertainment. British Airways is particularly excited to be the first airline to link-up in-flight entertainment with Amazon.co.uk, the UK's leading online retailer."

For more information please contact:

• Rebekah Fitzgerald on 0181 237 4018
  Rebecca Woods on 0181 237 4003

For more information about British Airways, please contact:
Carolyn Vicars on 0208 738 3546

For more information about Somethin' Else, please contact:
Barnaby Levy on 0208 741 1603.

Notes to Editors:

About Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.co.uk is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), the Internet's No. 1 music, No. 1 video, and No. 1 book retailer, which opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995. Today, the Amazon.com store has expanded to offer free electronic greeting cards, online auctions and more than 4.7 million book, music-CD, video, DVD, computer-game, and other titles, plus secure credit-card payment, personalised recommendations, and streamlined ordering through 1-Click. technology and hassle-free auction bidding with Bid-Click.

About British Airways In-flight Entertainment
British Airways in-flight entertainment has been awarded by industry as 'the best in the sky'. BA's in-flight entertainment is backed by extensive market research which has showed that passengers liked the quality of the programming content but wanted to select channels that were mood rather than category specific. British Airways offers 2,000 hours of programming a year.

Whilst travelling with British Airways, Club World customers have the opportunity to sample up to 18 channels of video,12 channels of audio and award-winning magazine High Life. British Airways IFE Customer Needs research sampled more than 1500 passengers who travelled in First Class, Club World and World Traveller. Research showed that many business passengers travelling alone valued the opportunity to use the time onboard as their own - particularly on long haul. They stated that they felt insulated from work because they couldn't be contacted and found that travelling on British Airways provided the space to relax and recharge their batteries. Listening to the radio was one of the preferred activities for a majority of people on long haul flights.

About Somethin' Else
Somethin' Else Sound Directions Ltd is a Sony Award-winning independent radio production company specialising in highly creative programming across the public service and commercial broadcasting sectors. Founded by Jez Nelson and Sonita Alleyne, Somethin' Else is a major producer of music and speech for BBC Radio 1 (over 25% of its documentary programming), as well as originating material for Radios 3, 4, 5 Live, the World Service, the UK's growing ILR network and British Airways in-flight entertainment (for whom it supplies programming for 6 out of 12 channels). Somethin' Else has also sound produced feature films and multi-media games (for which it has recently won a BAFTA), and has also made a successful foray into prime-time television with BBC1's Get Your Act Together. The company is equipped with state of-the-art-sound studios and digital editing facilities, which are available for hire.