Matt Blank and Anne Sweeney Top List of NCTA 2008 Vanguard Honorees

Paul Allen Included in This Year's Honor Roll of Nine Winners to
Be Recognized During The Cable Show '08
WASHINGTON--(Business Wire)--
Matthew Blank, Chairman and CEO, Showtime Networks Inc., and Anne
Sweeney, Co-Chair, Disney Media Networks, and President, Disney-ABC
Television Group, are the 2008 recipients of the cable industry's top
honor, the Vanguard Award for "Distinguished Leadership," the National
Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) said today.

Sweeney and Blank top the list of nine Vanguard Award winners who
will be recognized for their outstanding contributions to the cable
industry. The 2008 Vanguard Awards will be presented on Tuesday, May
20, 2008, at a 4:15 p.m. (CDT) reception and awards ceremony during
The Cable Show '08, NCTA's 57th Annual Convention & International
Exposition, May 18-20, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in
New Orleans.

Inaugurated in 1965, the Vanguard Awards are presented annually to
individuals who excel in both business and personal commitment to
their colleagues, and whose accomplishments merit the recognition of
the entire cable industry.

The Vanguard Awards will be presented by Abbe Raven, Chair of the
NCTA Vanguard Awards Committee and President and CEO of the A&E
Television Networks.

A complete list of 2008 Vanguard Award honorees, along with a
description of each award, follows.

Distinguished Leadership

Each year, two awards are presented, one to a man and one to a
woman, who consistently have demonstrated the highest level of cable
industry leadership. This year's recipients are:

Matthew C. Blank, Chairman and CEO, Showtime Networks Inc. In a
career spanning three decades, Blank has made a significant and
indelible mark on the cable television industry. Blank has been with
Showtime since 1988, assuming the position of President and Chief
Operating Officer in 1991, followed by President and CEO, and then
Chairman and CEO in 1995. During his tenure at Showtime, he has helped
transform the network into one of the most successful cable channels
in the industry. Under Blank's leadership, Showtime Networks Inc.
(SNI) has grown from three premium networks to include 27 digital
channels. SNI also has been a champion and an early adopter of the
latest technologies, such as High Definition and Subscription Video on
Demand, providing cable subscribers with more choice, convenience, and
an enhanced viewing experience. Blank is a Trustee of the Harlem
Children's Zone and a member of the Board of Directors of the Creative
Coalition and PENCIL (Public Education Needs Civic Involvement in
Learning). On April 30, he will receive a special honor from the
Museum of the Moving Image, which he also serves as a Trustee. Active
in numerous industry organizations, he currently serves on the Board
of Directors of the NCTA and The Cable Center and is an avid supporter
and former honoree of the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in
Communications (NAMIC) and Cable Positive. Blank previously was
honored with NCTA's Vanguard Award for Marketing in 1991 and Vanguard
Award in the Programming category in 1999.

Anne Sweeney, President, Disney-ABC Television Group, and
Co-Chair, Disney Media Networks. Since assuming her current role in
2004, Sweeney repeatedly has been named the "Most Powerful Woman in
Entertainment" by The Hollywood Reporter, one of the "50 Most Powerful
Women in Business" by Fortune, and one of "The World's 100 Most
Powerful Women" by Forbes. She is responsible for Disney's
entertainment and news television properties globally. During her
tenure, Disney-ABC Television Group's properties have experienced
tremendous growth: Disney Channel has more than quintupled its
subscriber base with its mix of original series and movies and
acquired programming. It is now available on basic cable in more than
89 million homes in the United States. Active in organizations both
within and outside the cable industry, Sweeney is a board member of
Lifetime Television, the Museum of Television & Radio, the Special
Olympics, and an honorary chair of Cable Positive. She was inducted
into the Cable Center Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Broadcasting &
Cable Hall of Fame in 2005.

Young Leadership

The growth of cable is in large part due to the energy, vitality,
and creativity of the many young people working within the industry,
and the Young Leadership Award recognizes those individuals who have
already made a mark on the industry and its constituents. This year's
honoree is:

Bret Perkins, Vice President of Government Affairs, Comcast Cable
Corporation. Strong leadership, knowledge, focus, and commitment are
just a few of the characteristics attributed to Perkins by his
colleagues at Comcast. Perkins joined Comcast in 2001, and is credited
with effectively managing a very large local government affairs
function during a rapidly growing period for the company. During this
time, he managed the transition from an operation responsible for 22
states and 2,500 communities to one with 39 states and 6,000
communities. Perkins currently serves as the president of the
Philadelphia Chapter of NAMIC, served as co-chair of the 2006 Public
Affairs Forum of the Association of Cable Communications (formerly the
Cable Television Public Affairs Association), and has served on the
boards of the Committee of Seventy (a Philadelphia political watchdog
group), and the President's Advisory Board at Temple University.

Programmers

Cable's creative programming services make the industry a leader
in the home entertainment business, and this award recognizes
innovation, leadership, and individual achievement of NCTA's
programmer members. This year's honoree is:

Kenneth W. Lowe, President & CEO, The E.W. Scripps Company. Prior
to rejoining the Scripps corporate offices in Cincinnati, Lowe was
chairman and CEO of Knoxville-based Scripps Networks. He built the
company's Scripps Networks division into one of the nation's fastest
growing and most successful creators of unique brands for television
and the Internet. He founded and launched Home & Garden Television in
1994; managed Food Network, in which the company owns a majority
interest; and oversaw the launch of the company's third network, Do It
Yourself (DIY), as well as Fine Living and Great American Country.
Lowe serves on the boards of many organizations, including the
Associated Press, Fifth Third Bancorp, and the Greater Cincinnati
Chamber of Commerce. Lowe is chair of Cincinnati USA Partnership and
serves on the board of directors of the Cincinnati Center City
Development Corp., and as a trustee of the Fine Arts Fund - among many
other community organizations.

Science & Technology

This award honors individuals who have played a significant role
in product improvement as well as in the design and development of
engineering techniques. This year's honoree is:

Paul G. Allen, Chairman, Charter Communications, and Chairman,
Vulcan Inc. Investor and philanthropist Paul Allen has had a long and
illustrious career in the cable industry, marked by his support for
innovation. Allen has been credited with significantly advancing the
set-top user experience in the area of interactive digital video
through the development of Digeo's Moxi user interface. The Moxi user
interface has become an award-winning product highly regarded in the
cable industry, aligning with the industry's tru2way(TM) initiative to
enable simple, two-way interactive television. He has also been a key
driver, working with Microsoft, in the development of the Open Cable
Unidirectional Receiver, which enables cable's digital video,
including HDTV, to be displayed on Media Center PCs driven by the
Vista Operating System.

Cable Operations Management

This award recognizes the efforts of cable's system managers, who
work under intensely competitive conditions in today's dynamic
telecommunications environment, and are critical to the cable
industry's success at the local level. This year's recipient is:

Steven Brookstein, Executive Vice President, Operations, Bresnan
Communications. Brookstein is a core member of the Bresnan management
team and has overseen the management of systems during a period of
remarkable growth for the company - especially when considering that
many of Bresnan's systems operate in a challenging rural environment.
In particular, Brookstein is credited with the successful launch of
Bresnan's digital phone service and its industry-leading penetration
rate of 33 percent of basic subscribers after just three years of
availability.

Government & Community Relations

This award recognizes individuals who have had a significant
impact on promoting a positive public image and advocating public
policy positions for the cable industry at the national, state, and/or
local levels. This year's honoree is:

Carol A. Melton, Executive Vice President, Global Public Policy,
Time Warner Inc. Melton is responsible for overseeing all of Time
Warner's domestic and international public policy operations,
including offices in Washington, D.C.; London; Brussels; and Hong
Kong. As the company's chief public policy strategist and advocate,
she also works closely with the senior management of the company's
business units on policy issues affecting them worldwide. In
particular, she is integrally involved in developing business and
public policy strategies for Turner, HBO, and Time Warner Cable. Under
Melton's direction and leadership, Time Warner has played a leading
role in staving off efforts to regulate the Internet marketplace, a
key area of growth for the cable industry.

Marketing

This award honors an individual who has been instrumental in the
development of marketing approaches that significantly enhance cable's
public image and increase customers. This year's honoree is:

Sam Howe, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer,
Time Warner Cable. Howe leads Time Warner Cable's marketing efforts -
influencing virtually every aspect of the company's successful efforts
to drive awareness and sales. He heads Time Warner's outreach to
prepare customers for the 2009 Digital Transition, and has worked
tirelessly on industry-wide marketing efforts. In 2007, he co-chaired
the Marketing Co-op of the Cable & Telecommunications Association for
Marketing (CTAM), leading a unified national marketing campaign for
cable phone service and supporting the Cable Mover Hotline, retail
initiatives, and integrated communications efforts, among others. He
continues to be a member of the CTAM Board of Directors and he served
as co-chair of the CTAM Summit '07.

Associates & Affiliates

This award recognizes the important contributions of equipment
manufacturers and service suppliers to cable industry innovation,
growth, and progress. This year's honoree is:

Michael Pohl, President, Global Strategies, C-COR. Pohl's 26 years
of experience in the cable industry includes directing franchising for
Tribune Cable and Douglas Communications; serving as CEO of SkyConnect
and nCUBE; and in his current position at C-COR, a global provider of
VOD access and management platforms. A longtime advocate for small
cable operators, he played a critical role in the creation of HITS,
which enables small operators to deliver digitally-based satellite
signals to their customers. In addition to his work at C-COR, Pohl
remains heavily involved in the cable industry's leading
organizations, including CableLabs, NCTA, Cable TV Pioneers, and the
Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE).

Attending the Awards Ceremony

Reservations are required to attend the Vanguard Awards and
Reception at The Cable Show '08. For more information, contact Tobi
Brown in NCTA Industry Affairs at 202-222-2430. For additional,
up-to-the-minute information, or to register for The Cable Show '08,
visit the official web site (www.thecableshow.com) or contact NCTA's
Department of Industry Affairs (202-222-2430).

-- Media Attendance: The Vanguard Awards event is open to the
media at no cost, but reservations are mandatory. Reporters
and editors may make reservations by contacting Licet Ariza at
The Fratelli Group, at 202-822-9491 or lariza@fratelli.com, no
later than May 16.

-- Photo Editors: To obtain photos of the Vanguard winners,
please contact Pam Ford at pford@ncta.com.

NCTA is the principal trade association for the U.S. cable
industry, representing cable operators serving more than 90 percent of
the nation's cable television households and more than 200 cable
program networks. The cable industry is the nation's largest broadband
provider of high-speed Internet access after investing more than $130
billion over ten years to build a two-way interactive network with
fiber optic technology. Cable companies also provide state-of-the-art
digital telephone service to millions of American consumers.

National Cable & Telecommunications Association
Rob Stoddard/Brian Dietz, 202-222-2350
or
Fratelli Group
Eric Thomas, 202-822-9491

Copyright Business Wire 2008