Tribune Broadcasting Readies Another Five Stations for DTV With NDS HDTV Encoding Systems

Business Wire, March 24, 1999

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 1999--

Station Group's Next Wave of Television Stations Expected to be

On Air Starting Fall of 1999

NDS Americas Inc., a leading provider of end-to-end digital broadcasting solutions, today announced Tribune Broadcasting has exercised its Master Purchase Agreement option to purchase another five ATSC encoding systems for deployment in the station group's next wave of digital television station rollouts.

Five stations in major markets across the country will receive the new NDS Series E5820 multi-format high-definition encoding system. Each system is user configurable to handle the most prevalent ATSC digital television formats, which gives each station the flexibility to pursue their individual business plans.

Tribune Broadcasting, the nation's fifth largest station group with 17 television stations nationwide, has an open agreement with NDS Americas to purchase encoding systems at predetermined pricing levels. The next series of television stations to receive the digital encoding equipment from NDS are WPIX-TV, New York; WGN-TV, Chicago; KCPQ-TV, Seattle; KTXL-TV, Sacramento; and WXIN-TV, Indianapolis.

WPIX and WGN will also be delivered NDS' StreamServer multiplex control and PSIP generation system and each are scheduled to be the first stations among the group to be on air starting May 1, 1999.

"The NDS digital encoding systems have proven their mettle in Los Angeles at KTLA," said Ira Goldstone, vice president of Engineering and Technology for Tribune Broadcasting. "The high-quality broadcasts in both standard definition and high definition that we've been able to transmit to our television viewing audience in the Los Angeles basin is enhanced by NDS' superior encoding technology."

Tribune signed the Master Purchase Agreement with NDS in the fall of 1998. The first system NDS shipped to Tribune was delivered to Warner Bros. affiliate KTLA-Los Angeles. Since the station's inaugural digital transmission at the SMPTE Conference in Pasadena, Calif. last Oct. 29, it has broadcast a number of high-profile events in HDTV including the 1999 Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's day.

"The recent order from Tribune for another five encoding systems continues to reinforce our market leading position as a preferred provider of HDTV broadcast systems," said Dr. Dov Rubin, NDS Americas vice president and general manager.

"The next generation of digital encoding can be found in our new Series E5820 HDTV encoding systems that further enhances the NDS reputation for providing superior quality solutions with the industry leading flexibility to meet individual television station requirements for handling multiple ATSC transmission formats."

Tribune signed the Master Purchase Agreement with NDS after extensively testing the systems at its corporate headquarters in Chicago. Transmission quality and system flexibility were critical due to the varying affiliate requirements for different transmission formats depending on their network affiliation. The signed Master Purchase Agreement covers all of the NDS ATSC systems for varying formats, including 1080i, 720p, and 480p.

About NDS

NDS, headquartered in the UK, with operations worldwide, provides end-to-end solutions for digital broadcasting through the company's research, development and manufacturing activities. NDS is a recognized leader in digital video compression and conditional access, and has proven systems integration and global support capabilities.

NDS is providing its advanced technologies, products and services to many of the current and planned satellite and terrestrial broadcasting systems around the world. In addition, over ten million subscribers around the globe use NDS conditional access systems to receive Pay-TV satellite and cable services.

NDS plays a major part in developing open systems and the international standards for the digital broadcasting arena, providing the technology and market know-how to implement standards such as MPEG-2, DVB, ATSC, SMPTE and DTTV. The company continues to make a major commitment to R&D, with over 700 of its 1,350 plus employees dedicated to its pioneering development work at research centers in Israel, the U.S. and the UK.

NDS is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NWS), a leading global media company. NDS has won many awards for technology including an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and three Queen's Awards, one for Technology and two for Export. NDS is on the World-Wide-Web at: http://www.ndsworld.com.