ATLANTA, Aug 14, 2002 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Cox Communications today announced it has successfully opened its digital tier of channels to local advertisers in Orange County, CA using new DVS 253 (SCTE 35 2001) standard procedures developed by the Society of Cable Television Engineers (SCTE).

Cox is currently running live, revenue-generating ads on the digital tier and breaking new ground in cable advertising. Cox plans to begin inserting local advertising into as many as six digital tier channels per market in eight additional markets this year.

"This innovative new practice allows us to insert programming, whether it be advertising, public service announcements, or other content, onto channels that were previously inaccessible to local advertisers," said Billy Farina, Cox's vice president of advertising sales. "Many of our digital tier channels appeal to a specific viewing audience, allowing for more targeted advertising by our local advertisers."

With the implementation of DVS 253, Cox is able to receive a multiplexed digital signal from programmers, choose the appropriate cable networks, and insert local content or commercials that are then transmitted to customers in real time. The result is an uninterrupted high quality picture that is delivered to Cox Digital Cable subscribers.

This is Cox's second foray into ad insertion on digital tier programming, having launched a hybrid solution in Phoenix that uses analog cue tones to trigger the insertion of ads. With DVS 253, however, there is no analog component to the process. This allows for a more seamless insertion of advertising into the programming and a higher quality signal to customers.

There are primarily two devices - an ad server and ad splicer (statistical remultiplexer) - used to make Digital Program Insertion (DPI) possible. The ad server stores the commercial content and streams it to the ad splicer when triggered by digital cues. Utilizing DVS 253, the ad splicer seamlessly splices the MPEG2 commercial video streams into the programmer's digital streams. The ad splicer also allows an operator to select among multiple programmer video streams, providing outgoing signal carriage of only those networks carried by the operator.

In Orange County, Cox is using Terayon Communication System's CherryPicker(TM) 7000 Ad Splicer and is using SeaChange's Transport Streams Insertion (TSI) System. "Cox is a well-known innovator in the industry and we're glad to play a key part in its roll-out of standards-based digital program insertion, especially since we helped develop these standards," said Peter Hung, vice president of marketing for Terayon. "This launch is a milestone for the entire cable ad industry. After years of collaboration on standards development and field testing with the technical community and cable programmers, Cox has been instrumental in cracking this business wide open for everyone," said James Kelso, vice president and general manager of broadband systems, SeaChange International. "With Cox we've shown that digital tier insertion doesn't require a forklift upgrade of current infrastructure and that cable's local ad business model remains the same."

"We are demonstrating the improved performance of seamless digital program insertion in a local cable environment using current SeaChange insertion systems," said Guy McCormick, vice president of technical operations for Cox's ad sales division. "The knowledge and technology now exists for cable operators to offer their local advertisers space on the digital programming tier. DVS 253 offers a more integrated solution that maintains the quality of programming end-to-end. We expect this solution to quickly become the industry standard as it allows the integration of digital program insertion with the operator's existing systems."

"As cable operators continue to see increased digital cable penetration, it becomes more important that they have the flexibility to insert content into digital tier programming," said Farina. "The ability to place advertising onto digital tier channels is an important milestone in cable television advertising. This not only increases Cox's potential ad revenue, it also gives the company and its advertisers greater flexibility in slotting programming among its analog and digital tiers."

About Cox Communications

Cox Communications (NYSE: COX), a Fortune 500 company, is a multi-service broadband communications company serving approximately 6.3 million customers nationwide. Cox is the nation's fifth-largest cable television provider, and offers both traditional analog video programming under the Cox Cable brand as well as advanced digital video programming under the Cox Digital Cable brand. Cox provides an array of other communications and entertainment services, including local and long distance telephone under the Cox Digital Telephone brand; high-speed Internet access under the brands Cox High Speed Internet and Cox Express; and commercial voice and data services via Cox Business Services. Cox is an investor in programming networks including Discovery Channel. More information about Cox Communications can be accessed on the Internet at www.cox.com.

CONTACT: Cox Communications David Grabert, 404/269-7054