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  • Antenna Direct
Silver Spring, MD, 1 December 2006

David Zaslav announced Next President and CEO of Discovery Communications Inc.

Last month, John Hendricks announced David Zaslav as Discovery Communications' next President and CEO, and we are all very excited about what that means for the company and for Discovery Travel Media in particular.  If you have not yet seen the announcement, please see below. If you'd like to learn more about David, just click on this link to watch a video of a 2004 interview he did on CNBC. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

John Hendricks: I am absolutely delighted to announce that NBC's David Zaslav will become the next President and CEO of Discovery Communications. I have had the pleasure of knowing David for over two decades since he first helped me in the early days of Discovery as a bright, energetic young lawyer who enthusiastically embraced our brand and worked tirelessly on our key programming and distribution deals. In the time since, David has amassed an enormous set of management and financial skills at NBC Universal where he built the distribution base and operations of an enviable array of cable and new media offerings. In serving with David on the TiVo Board of Directors, I directly observed David's keen insights into the future landscape of media. David is always ahead of the game.

David joins the company as we are experiencing strong ratings growth across our main television networks in the United States, robust distribution gains for our services around the world, and expansion of our multiplatform reach with the recent launch of our new integrated businesses including Discovery Travel Media, Discovery Health Media and Animal Planet Media Enterprises. I am confident in David's passionate, inspiring leadership and that he is the perfect choice to steward the valuable stable of Discovery brands and to guide our global company into the digital future.

I want to compliment all of the other candidates who carried themselves with great passion and professionalism during the entire process. While the choice was difficult, I am convinced that David brings the right combination of experience, vision and operational excellence to Discovery at this critical time in the company's development.

David will assume his new duties in early 2007, and in the interim period, I will serve as acting Chief Executive Officer.

About David Zaslav

David joins Discovery from his position as President of NBC Universal Cable and Domestic TV and New Media Distribution. He has been responsible for the strategic development of NBC Universal's cable portfolio and operations for the company's domestic TV distribution, TV EST (electronic sell-through) and TV Wireless Distribution focusing on windowing strategy and content distribution over various platforms. In this role, David has overseen domestic distribution of NBC Universal content to all forms of television throughout the United States and Canada. David has also been responsible for the strategic development of NBC Universal?s cable portfolio, the company's video-on-demand, HDTV and pay-per-view initiatives, as well as sales and marketing for Bravo, CNBC, CNBC World, MSNBC, SCI FI, ShopNBC, Sleuth, Telemundo, Telemundo Puerto Rico, mun2, Trio, Universal HD, USA Network, NBC Weather Plus and the Olympics on cable.

David also oversaw NBC Universal Cable's interests in A&E, The History Channel, The History Channel International, The Biography Channel, National Geographic International, the Sundance Channel and TiVo, and he negotiated landmark deals with DirecTV and Comcast to provide on-demand content from NBCU's prime time broadcast and cable shows.

In October 1999, David was named President, NBC Cable. He joined NBC in 1989 and was instrumental in developing and launching CNBC that same year, which now reaches more than 88 million subscribers. Under his leadership, Bravo added more than seven million subscribers since its acquisition in December 2002 and is now seen in more than 80 million homes. David also played a key role in the creation and successful launch of MSNBC in 1996. In addition, under his direction, MSNBC grew to more than 85 million subscribers.

In addition to his work at NBC, David is on the boards of the Arts & Entertainment Network, National Geographic Television, TiVo, The National Cable Center, Cable in the Classroom and New York City's Center for Communications. He was also an adjunct professor at Fordham University, where he created and taught a graduate-level course on the business of cable television.

Before joining NBC, Zaslav was a corporate/entertainment attorney with the New York firm of LeBouef, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae. He graduated with honors from Boston University School of Law. He is married and has three children.

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