Burns named president, StarSight Product Group; Henkel named executive vice president and CFO; Roop named senior vice president, technology and development as part of continued StarSight Telecast corporate expansion.

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 22, 1994--John B. Burns III has been named president of the newly created StarSight Product Group of StarSight Telecast Inc. (NASDAQ/NMS:SGHT); Martin W. Henkel has been named executive vice president and chief financial officer of StarSight Telecast Inc.; and John H. Roop has been named senior vice president of technology and development of the company, as part of the continued corporate expansion at StarSight Telecast, it was announced Tuesday by Michael W. Faber, StarSight Telecast chairman and CEO.

Burns had been executive vice president, sales and marketing; Henkel was previously vice president of operations and chief financial officer. Roop had been vice president of engineering.

These promotions and accompanying expansions of operational responsibility are the direct result of StarSight Telecast's rapid expansion over the past year and commitment to reinforcing its position as a leading provider of interactive program guide technology and products.

To date, the company has signed agreements with such consumer electronics companies as Zenith Electronics Corp., Goldstar Co. Ltd., Thomson Consumer Electronics (RCA), Philips Consumer Electronics Co., Mitsubishi Electric  Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Matsushita Television Co. (Panasonic), Sony Corp., Uniden America Corp., Jerrold (General Instruments) and Scientific Atlanta.

StarSight Telecast's recent entry into the telephony arena with its agreement with Bell Atlantic further expands the company's reach into all current and planned channels of television programming distribution.

Effective with these promotions, the company's various operations have been organized under four operating groups:

-- StarSight Product Group, under Burns, includes consumer electronics, cable/telco, satellite and wireless sales as well as marketing, marketing communications and engineering. The group will continue to focus on the national launch of the current StarSight interactive television program guide with one-button VCR recording.

-- Corporate Operations Group, under Henkel, who is also a StarSight Telecast board member, includes finance, corporate planning, controller's office, management information systems/network operations, personnel, investor relations, manufacturing operations and administration.

-- New Product Development Group, under Roop, includes all R&D for future StarSight Telecast products, new strategic partner products and next-generation product direction, including products with Bell Atlantic Video Services.

-- Patents Group, directly under Faber, oversees ongoing development of the company's intellectual property portfolio, which currently consists of nine patents covering over 200 inventive claims.

"StarSight Telecast continues to make dramatic progress in building its business through rapid development and delivery of its products, securing additional intellectual property protection through the acquisition of new patents and expanding its future opportunities through new strategic partnerships," Faber said.

"We are confident that this new business structure and accompanying promotions of key executives will help the company continue to achieve a leadership position with our core product, StarSight, and other products that we may be introducing over the next several years."

Burns joined StarSight Telecast in June 1992, as executive vice president, sales and marketing. He previously was senior vice president of Affiliate Sales and Marketing for Showtime Networks Inc., a subsidiary of Viacom Inc.

During his 11 years at Showtime, he held positions which included vice president of sales operations in New York; Western Zone vice president in San Francisco; and vice president, sales and field operations in New York.

Henkel joined StarSight Telecast in January 1992, as vice president of operations and chief financial officer. He previously was vice president of operations and chief financial officer of Phylon Communications Inc., an integrated circuit design and hardware manufacturing company.

Roop, a co-founder of StarSight Telecast, has held positions as vice president of engineering and director of engineering for the company since it began operations in 1989. In those positions, Roop has overseen the development of the StarSight technology and headed the design and testing process of the various components of the StarSight system.

StarSight Telecast is a publicly held company backed by strategic partners Viacom International Inc., Spelling Entertainment (a Blockbuster Entertainment company), Cox Communications Inc., Tribune Co., Times Mirror Cable Television Inc., KBLCOM Inc. (a division of Houston Industries) and Providence Journal Co.

The company's stock is traded on the NASDAQ National Market System under the symbol SGHT. StarSight is a trademark of StarSight Telecast Inc.

CONTACT: StarSight Telecast Inc., Fremont

              Lisa Lamy, 510/657-9900
                        or
              Rogers & Cowan Inc., Los Angeles
              Tim Scerba/Sallie Olmsted, 310/201-8898/8817