Newton, MA — July 25, 2005 — Broadband Directions LLC, a leading market intelligence and consulting firm focused on broadband-delivered video, today released a ground-breaking report which finds that delivering video over broadband internet connections is gaining strong momentum among the largest basic cable TV networks. The significance of this, according to its author, cable and broadband industry veteran Will Richmond, is that it demonstrates cable TV networks now understand, and are increasingly responding to the dramatic changes sweeping through today's video distribution value chain. These changes are being driven by fundamental audience viewing habits that are shifting in favor of online consumption.

The report, entitled "The Top 75 Basic Cable TV Networks: An Analysis of Their Broadband-Delivered Video Opportunities and Current Initiatives", is based on a comprehensive and in-depth review of the video initiatives offered from the web sites of the 75 most highly-penetrated basic cable TV networks.

"As this new report makes abundantly clear, the largest cable TV networks have now realized that delivering video over broadband internet connections is a critical new promotional and incremental revenue-generating activity", said Will Richmond, president and founder of Broadband Directions LLC. "With in excess of 35 million homes in the U.S now connected to the internet via broadband (with continued strong growth expected), and consumers increasingly favoring online as the medium of choice to both discover and consume the products they desire, there is little doubt that broadband delivery is poised to become the next important video distribution platform."

He continued, "Broadband-delivered video represents a fundamental paradigm change for cable TV networks. For the first time in history, cable TV networks, and indeed all video content producers and aggregators have the technical ability to deliver high-quality video directly to their intended audiences, without a business relationship involving a third-party distributor. As new technologies make broadband an important pathway to the television set, as well as a conduit for richer home-wide and mobile-based digital media consumption, broadband will continue to reshape the video distribution value chain as we know it today. However, the wide-ranging activities specifically cited in this report, as well as the diverse trends in the market in general, both suggest that, at this point in time, we are still in the "first inning' of broadband-delivered video's ultimate evolution."

The report, which Broadband Directions believes is a first-of-its-kind analysis of the largest basic cable TV networks' broadband-delivered video initiatives, includes key findings such as:

• 91% (68) of the top 75 basic cable TV networks now offer video from their web sites to broadband-connected users.
• 100% of the top 40 basic cable TV networks, each of which is available in at least 75 million U.S. homes, now offer video from their web sites.
• Of the 68 which offer video, 53% (36) do so primarily to promote the programs they offer on TV, while 47% (32) do so primarily to generate incremental revenue.
• Of the 36 which offer video primarily to promote their programs, only 11% (4) offer video clips specifically tied to the episodes airing that particular week, while 89% (32) offer video clips that are either outtakes from previous episodes, ancillary content (e.g. interviews with actors, bloopers, etc), or stock promotional trailers.
• Of the 32 which offer video primarily to generate incremental revenue, 81% (26) rely on advertising (which are typically 15 or 30-second "pre-roll" video ads), 13% (4) offer subscriptions, and 6% (2) do so to support electronic commerce.
• Of the 62 which offer video primarily for either promotion or advertising support, 55% (34) use a "pop-up" browser window, which is typically a web page measuring approximately 800 pixels x 600 pixels, to create a standalone experience for users to view and navigate the available video, while 45% (28) offer their video in an embedded window in a full-size web page.

The full report, "The Top 75 Basic Cable TV Networks: An Analysis of Their Broadband-Delivered Video Opportunities and Current Initiatives" is now available for complimentary download from the Broadband Directions web site (www.broadbanddirections.com). Future updates to this report, as well as subsequent market intelligence reports on broadband-delivered video, will be available exclusively to Broadband Directions clients.