Cinar and the National Head Start Association Establish Exclusive Partnership to Create and Distribute Products to Head Start Centers in the United States.

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 26, 1999--

CINAR (NASDAQ:CINR) (ME:CIF.A.) (TSE:CIF.A.) (ME:CIF.B.) (TSE:CIF.B.) CINAR Corporation (Nasdaq: CINR), the award-winning entertainment and education company specializing in quality, non-violent children's programming and education products, and the National Head Start Association (NHSA), an organization committed to helping the poor children and their families in the U.S., have reached a landmark agreement today.

CINAR and NHSA now have an ongoing exclusive business partnership whereby they jointly develop, produce, and distribute a line of branded training and audiovisual products to meet the needs of the children, teachers, staff, and parents of Head Start. The 2,051 Head Start programs in the United States provide an array of social and educational services designed to equip underprivileged children from birth to five and their parents with the skills they need to better transition and experience success in school. The programs reach more than 850,000 children.

The product lines will include curriculum and teaching materials, resource materials for staff and parents, workshops and conferences, computer media, audiovisual materials such as videos and CD-ROM and audio products. HighReach Learning, CINAR's wholly owned educational subsidiary, that specializes in early childhood products that promote school readiness, will be responsible for marketing and distributing these new products.

"We are honored and pleased by this new partnership with NHSA," said Ronald A. Weinberg, president and co-chief executive officer of CINAR. "This exclusive partnership will allow us to adapt our educational and entertainment products, in collaboration with NHSA, so that we can best meet the needs of children, teachers and parents in Head Start centers across the United States."

"We are delighted that partnering with CINAR will benefit the Head Start community," said Sarah Greene, NHSA's chief executive officer. "Although NHSA has grown tremendously in the last few years, our limited staff is not able to keep up with the training needs of the Head Start community. Now it is great to cooperate with a company that can produce quality products for children, parents, and staff."

This agreement expands CINAR's reach into the U.S. educational market. Earlier this month, CINAR announced that its pre-school series, Caillou(TM), would be broadcast in the fall of 2000 on PBS. With this announcement, CINAR becomes the only producer of children's programming ever to have four series at one time accepted by PBS for inclusion in the daily Ready to Learn schedule. CINAR is also the producer of Wimzie's House(TM) (presented to PBS in association with Maryland Public Television), ARTHUR(TM) (with WGBH Boston), and Zaboomafoo(TM) (in association with Earth Creatures Company).

CINAR Corporation is an integrated entertainment and education company involved in the development, production, post-production and worldwide distribution of non-violent, quality programming and educational products for children and families. CINAR Entertainment's original productions include the two-time Emmy award-winning ARTHUR(TM) (with WGBH Boston), The Busy World of Richard Scarry(TM), Are You Afraid of the Dark?(TM), Wimzie's House(TM), as well as mini-series and family films seen in more than 150 countries. CINAR Education Inc., CINAR's educational division, promotes children's learning by developing, producing, distributing, and marketing high-quality supplemental education products worldwide. Through CINAR's diverse programming, its licensing and merchandising of entertainment-related products, and its array of supplemental education products, the company intends to appeal to children worldwide.

The National Head Start Association (NHSA) is the membership organization comprised of the Head Start programs throughout the nation. These programs represent 160,000 staff members operating 12,200 centers. NHSA works to improve quality and expand enrollment through increased program funding. It provides training and professional development for members and helps Head Start parents become economically self-sufficient. NHSA program members operate 42,000 classrooms that are integral to the lives of more than 850,000 children and families. NHSA supports all members of the Head Start community - Head Start professionals, parents, volunteers, and anyone else dedicated to helping America's disadvantaged families.