Ascent Media Group and HP Form Alliance to Deliver Digital Media Services for Major Hollywood Studios and Leading Broadband Portals

Ascent Media Group and HP Form Alliance to Deliver Digital Media Services for Major Hollywood Studios and Leading Broadband Portals

Silicon Valley Joins with Hollywood Experts to Transform the Media Supply Chain

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascent Media Group (AMG) and HP (NYSE:HPQ) today announced a strategic alliance to co-develop, market and deliver enterprise-level services and technologies that enable studios, content providers and aggregators to archive, repurpose and distribute media digitally for the multi-channel market.

The announcement formalizes the companies' three-year collaboration through which they have successfully enabled customers, such as Sony Pictures Entertainment and Paramount Pictures, to meet growing consumer demand for entertainment content on broadband, mobile, and other digital outlets and devices.

Through this alliance, the companies intend to transform the media supply chain by providing a hybrid solution to address both digital and physical media requirements. It marks the first formal pairing of a leader in transaction processing and IT with a leader in media operations.

"The media industry is in the middle of a massive shift from physical to virtual processes, and a transformational solution is needed that addresses both," said Jose Royo, chief technology officer, Ascent Media Group. "When you combine HP's leadership and expertise in large-scale transactions with Ascent's deep knowledge of media workflows, the result is an extensible platform that enables media companies to scale their businesses for the digital realm cost-effectively."

Since 2004, AMG and HP have been working together to customize solutions for studios and content distributors based on AMG's Viia(TM) suite of file-based media services and the HP Digital Media Platform. The combined service platform enables a company to digitize content once, then store, manage, re-purpose and distribute it globally in multiple formats and languages to numerous providers simultaneously -- all according to specified formats and delivery methods. It reduces time-to-market significantly, facilitates new revenue streams for existing assets, and can be implemented as a fully outsourced services platform or as individual managed services.

Under the formal alliance, AMG and HP will co-develop the service platform, market it to major studios, content providers and broadband portals, and provide consultation and support services together. HP is the preferred provider of hardware and software while AMG provides file-based media services for ingest, library and order management, content versioning, metadata transactions, electronic fulfillment, metadata management and digital rights management. Together, the companies will manage and support client requirements, and provide integration, specification development, testing and other professional services.

"The shift we're seeing in the media industry from physical to digital processes is as significant as the move to digital transactions by the finance and securities industry -- one of many industries HP has helped migrate to digital," said Tom Kuehle, vice president, Digital Content Services, HP. "By creating a digital 'vault' and enabling secure processes for handling transactions of media companies' most valuable assets -- their content -- HP and Ascent will help maximize those assets in this changing market."

Joint Offering in use at Sony and Paramount Studios

Sony Pictures Entertainment was the first studio to work with the two companies, providing input into the early stages of the companies' digital model and adopting a services platform to archive, repurpose and deliver digital assets. Since 2004, Sony has served 30 domestic and international clients, delivering 40,000 file-based titles to these customers in the past eight months alone. Overall, the studio has ingested more than 6,000 titles with 50,000 derivatives.

"What we've been able to accomplish has just been astounding," said Tony Beswick, senior vice president, Operations and Technology, Sony Pictures Entertainment. "Initially, we looked at this platform as a media library, but it's gone way beyond that. The more content we have available digitally, the faster we're able to capture new opportunities."

In March 2007, AMG and HP officially welcomed Paramount Pictures as a customer. Since September 2006 when the platform was first provisioned, AMG and HP have enabled the studio to deliver more than 10,000 file-based titles to broadband distributors for 400+ titles.

"In this rapidly changing, market-driven landscape, we knew we needed a digital supply chain that was both nimble and efficient, allowing us to focus on growing the business and at the same time explore new business models with far less risk," said Geremie Camara, vice president worldwide digital operations, Paramount. "To make this happen, we needed to align ourselves with forward-thinking companies, which led us to Ascent and HP."

To date, the AMG and HP offering has processed more than 90,000 assets, delivered file-based titles to 50+ broadcast, broadband, and mobile distributors worldwide and archived more than 9,000 titles for Sony, Paramount and other customers. Services are centered in AMG's $17 million 100,000-square-foot Digital Media Data Center, which houses a digital archive with a petabyte of online and nearline storage integrated across a global mesh network. In the coming months, AMG intends to launch three additional network hubs in the Eastern United States, Europe and Asia, enabling the alliance to take all of a customer's ingested content from any of these locations, repurpose it and distribute it electronically worldwide.

About HP

HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers -- from individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP is among the world's largest IT companies, with revenue totaling $100.5 billion for the four fiscal quarters ended July 31, 2007. More information about HP (NYSE:HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com/.

About Ascent Media Group

Santa Monica, California-based Ascent Media Group, LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Discovery Holding Company (NASDAQ:DISCA)(NASDAQ:DISCB), which through its Creative Services and Networks Services groups, provides creative, digital, technical media services to the media and entertainment industries. Through more than 74 facilities in the regions of Southern California, New York, Atlanta, London and Singapore and at locations throughout the world, Ascent Media provides effective solutions for the creation, management and distribution of content to major motion picture studios, independent producers, broadcast networks, cable channels, advertising agencies and other companies that produce, own and/or distribute entertainment, news, sports, corporate, educational, industrial and advertising content.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning expected development, performance or market share relating to products and services; anticipated operational and financial results; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the execution and performance of contracts by HP and its customers, suppliers and partners; the achievement of expected results; and other risks that are described in HP's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2007 and HP's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to HP's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2006. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Ascent Media Group

CONTACT: Debbie Curley, +1-415-848-7170, debbie@sutherlandgold.com, for
Ascent Media Group; or Jennifer Pershall of HP, +1-360-735-7962,
jennifer.pershall@hp.com

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