nCUBE and Lifetime Television Introduce World's First Digital Program Insertion.

Business Editors

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 7, 2002

nCUBE Corporation and Lifetime Movie Network reached a major milestone today in local digital cable advertising with the deployment of the world's first Digital Program Insertion (DPI) system utilizing the DVS-253 (ANSI/SCTE 35 2001) cueing standard for digital ad insertion.

nCUBE gives operators the unique ability to conduct both analog and digital ad insertion from the same server.

The DVS-253 standard defines cue messages that notify insertion systems of where and how to insert digital advertising without analog cue detection equipment. DPI provides cable operators the ability to better address the untapped revenue opportunities of local advertising as they migrate to digital programming.

In the past, cable operators have relied on analog cueing for inserting local advertising into digital network feeds. With the accessibility of new digital cueing, operators can now take advantage of countless benefits, including the adjustment of advertising schedules to accommodate sporting events and the incremental revenue generated from schedule management when last-minute changes occur.

nCUBE's DVS-253 ready server helps Lifetime Television and other programmers provide higher-quality advertising spots due to more accurate frame insertion. Additionally, digital cueing offers encryption to protect advertising revenues. Random encryption messages can prevent personal video recorder (PVR) commercial skipping by bypassing pattern-matching capabilities in set-top boxes.

"We applaud Lifetime for its role in bringing critical DPI technology using the DVS-253 standard into commercial deployment," said John Boland, vice president and general manager of nCUBE's Advertising Systems Group. "nCUBE has long believed that local advertising insertion technology for digital networks would deliver a strong revenue stream. With roughly 30 percent of cable viewers subscribing to digital packages, a figure that will no doubt increase, the digital tier is poised to deliver a very substantial revenue opportunity for operators and advertisers."

In addition to nCUBE's equipment, Lifetime is using Scientific-Atlanta's PowerVu Plus(TM) D9210 advanced encoder, which compresses signals and injects DPI signaling based on cue trigger inputs.

"We are extremely proud of our efforts to implement the DVS 253 standard into the Lifetime Movie Network. With nCUBE and Scientific-Atlanta's help, we have successfully moved this technology out of the lab, and into the mainstream," said Doug Joseph, vice president of engineering, Lifetime Television. "We will continue our efforts to add DVS 253 to Lifetime Real Women in the near future, and will work with nCUBE to validate its reliable operation, as we did with the Lifetime Movie Network."

nCUBE's DPI platform is the most widely deployed solution for digital advertising insertion, supporting more than 500 digital channels combined for AT&T Broadband in Los Angeles and Time Warner Cable in Milwaukee. The Los Angeles deployment is the largest DPI installation in the world. nCUBE DPI is available in two forms, depending upon operator needs and stage of digital technology adoption.

DPI Premium is an advanced ad insertion system that can simultaneously manage up to 40 channels each of digital-to-analog and digital-to-digital insertion. DPI Classic supports eight to 20 channels of digital-to-digital ad insertion, providing a low-cost means to retain local advertising as systems migrate to digital programming.

About nCUBE

nCUBE Corporation (www.ncube.com) is a leading provider of on-demand media and digital advertising solutions. The company offers cable operators and telecommunications network providers the most comprehensive business and technology management solutions for advanced television services such as video-on-demand (VOD), subscription VOD (SVOD), network personal video recording (nPVR) and digital advertising insertion.

nCUBE provides operators with a proven technology and business model deployed throughout the world. The company's hypercube interconnect server architecture offers the only video server solution capable of allowing more than 53,000 users to simultaneously access the same piece of content from one server. With the nABLE On-Demand Management System, nCUBE offers a comprehensive on-demand business management solution. nCUBE also provides the most scalable advertising insertion solutions on the market today, including a Digital Program Insertion (DPI) product -- the only advertising insertion platform in the world capable of scaling up to 40 analog and 40 digital channels from the same server.

nCUBE's distinguished customer and partner list includes: AT&T Broadband, Canal+ Technologies, Charter Communications, Comcast Corporation, Gemstar-TV Guide, Kingston Communications, Liberate Technologies, Motorola, OpenTV, Scientific-Atlanta and Time Warner Cable. The company's corporate headquarters is based in Beaverton, Ore., with offices worldwide.

About Lifetime Television

LIFETIME is the #1 cable television network in primetime and the leader in women's television. LIFETIME is committed to offering the highest-quality entertainment and information programming, and advocating a wide range of issues affecting women and their families. Launched in 1984, LIFETIME serves nearly 85 million households nationwide, available on more than 11,000 cable systems and alternative delivery systems. LIFETIME launched a 24-hour sister service, the Lifetime Movie Network, in 1998, and a second sister service, Lifetime Real Women, launched in August 2001. On the web, Lifetime Online (www.lifetimetv.com) features informational resources and interactive entertainment. All four services, LIFETIME Television, Lifetime Movie Network, Lifetime Real Women and Lifetime Online, are part of LIFETIME Entertainment Services, a 50/50 joint venture of The Hearst Corporation and The Walt Disney Company.