PanAmSat Inks Deal with Leading Latin American Broadcaster Venevision Continental

PanAmSat Inks Deal with Leading Latin American Broadcaster Venevision Continental

WILTON, Connecticut, September 11/PRNewswire/ --

- PanAmSat Enhances Relationship with Venezuela's Cisneros Group with the Distribution of Its International Channel Venevision Continental

PanAmSat (NYSE: PA) announced today that Venevision Continental, a company of the Cisneros Group, one of Latin America's leading broadcasters, has selected PanAmSat's PAS-9 Atlantic Ocean Region satellite as its international distribution platform. This deal expands the already strong alliance between the Company and the Cisneros Group taking advantage of PanAmSat's video capabilities and multichannel platforms to reach an unrivaled community of cable operators throughout Latin America and Europe.

"PanAmSat's legacy in Latin America is long and rich, having distributed the international networks of top Latin American broadcasters for nearly two decades. Our objective is always to bring as much value as possible to our customers. In the case of Venevision Continental, we are able to offer an integrated solution which includes the space segment on PAS-9 and a full range of video distribution capabilities," said Carmen Gonzalez-Sanfeliu, vice president of Latin America Operations for PanAmSat. "This contract reinforces that PAS-9 has the best cable penetration in Latin America. With an aggregate of more than 250 television channels, PAS-3R and PAS-9 are the platforms of choice for programmers who need full cable head-end penetration for Latin America. We are delighted to strengthen our relationship with the Cisneros Group and we look forward to future business with this valued customer."

Launched on August 28, 2000, Venevision Continental is a Cisneros Group pay TV network designed to provide highly rated Spanish-language programming. Built with the Cisneros Group's production and broadcast expertise, Venevision Continental offers the best productions in Latin American entertainment and news programming. It includes well-known novelas, talk shows, magazines, variety shows, and special events, among others. Venevision Continental airs a broad variety of leading regional news programs from Latin America and the Caribbean. These include "Caracol Noticias," "El Informador" and "Noticiero Univision." It also produces original variety shows, news programming and broadcast segments catering to regional markets.

"By operating the top cable video neighborhoods in Latin America, PanAmSat's PAS-9 satellite offers Venevision Continental a proven platform for the successful distribution of our network," said Cosme Lopez, Director of Operations of Venevision Continental. "With a lineup that includes the best programming of the leading Spanish-language networks, Venevision Continental has experienced great success with this type of packaging in a single network. PanAmSat's global coverage, unparalleled fleet reliability and outstanding customer service are key elements to our growth strategy in Latin America and overseas."

In the early 1990s, PanAmSat pioneered the concept of digital platforms in Latin America. Customers maximized the value of their satellite capacity by transmitting video content over compressed digital channels on a shared transponder. Venevision Continental will make use of one of the transport platforms on PAS-9 to deliver its Spanish-language programming throughout Latin America and Europe. It will employ the video distribution capabilities at PanAmSat's Atlanta teleport, contracting a managed service that includes conditional access, video compression, encoding and transmission to PAS-9 on a multichannel platform.

PAS-9, a Boeing 601 HP model satellite employing 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders, operates at 58 degrees west longitude. The satellite serves many of the world's most prominent international broadcasters including the United Kingdom's BBC, China's CCTV, Germany's Deutsche Welle, Japan's NHK, Arabic channels supplied by the ART Group and a bouquet of channels from media conglomerates such as FOX, Claxson, ESPN, Hallmark, HBO, Viacom and Discovery Networks.

About the Cisneros Group of Companies

The Cisneros Group of Companies is one of the largest privately held media, entertainment, technology, and consumer products organizations in the world. The Group owns or holds interest in companies ranging from broadcast television networks, pay television services and Internet service providers to beverage businesses and supermarkets. Through its diverse businesses, the Cisneros Group of Companies delivers some of the top brands and the highest quality services to the 550 million Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking consumers in the Americas and Europe. The Group has recently expanded its activities from Ibero-America to countries worldwide.

About PanAmSat

Through its owned and operated fleet of 25 satellites, PanAmSat (NYSE: PA) is a leading global provider of video, broadcasting and network distribution and delivery services. It transmits 1,991 television channels worldwide and, as such, is the leading carrier of standard and high-definition signals. In total, the Company's in-orbit fleet is capable of reaching over 98 percent of the world's population through cable television systems, broadcast affiliates, direct-to-home operators, Internet service providers and telecommunications companies. In addition, PanAmSat supports the largest concentration of satellite-based business networks in the U.S., as well as specialized communications services in remote areas throughout the world. For more information, visit the Company's web site at http://www.panamsat.com .

Web site: http://www.panamsat.com

Source: PanAmSat

Kathryn Lancioni, PanAmSat, +1-203-210-8649, klancioni@panamsat.com

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