Discovery Channel is number one media and tv brand in the United States and around the world

The Spring 2005 EquiTrend Brand Study by Harris Interactive® ranked Discovery Channel as the number one Media Brand in Overall Quality for the ninth consecutive year, and the number one Television Network Brand in Overall Quality for the thirteenth consecutive year in the United States.

The channel, which is available exclusively in the Middle East on the Showtime Network, also ranked as number one media brand and most-watched network worldwide in the 2005 Roper Reports Worldwide study.

"As we celebrate our company's 20th anniversary this month, we are honored to be recognized year after year by consumers everywhere for providing products and services that are innovative, inspiring and increase consumers' knowledge," said Judith A. McHale, president and chief executive officer, Discovery Communications.

Peter Einstein, president and CEO of the Showtime network in the Middle East, commented: "Discovery Channel reflects the Showtime philosophy of delivering premium quality television entertainment for all the family at an affordable price.

"With Discovery Channel and its sister networks Discovery Civilisation and Animal Planet, Showtime has the strongest line-up of factual entertainment programming in the Middle East complete with Arabic subtitling."

Spring 2005 EquiTrend Brand Study

The Spring 2005 EquiTrend Brand Study is a brand quality-perception study conducted online once yearly by Harris Interactive among a nationwide cross-section of approximately 27,000 consumers, ages 15 and older, where each consumer rated 80 brands and each brand received 1,200 ratings.

The number of high quality Discovery

Communications brands in the EquiTrend Brand study exceeded all other media companies. TLC and Discovery Times Channel joined the flagship network among the top five Media and TV Brands.

This year, eight Discovery brands ranked among the top 25 media brands (Discovery Channel, TLC, Discovery Times Channel, Discovery Home Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery Health Channel, Discovery Kids and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom TV series of specials), and ten ranked among the top 25 TV brands (Discovery Channel, TLC, Discovery Times Channel, Discovery Home Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery Health Channel, Discovery Kids, The Science Channel and Travel Channel).

2005 Roper Reports Worldwide

Roper Reports Worldwide is a leading syndicated survey that measures 48 globally distributed brands on a variety of consumer-rated attributes, including familiarity, likeability, regularly watched/owned/used, and frequent recommendations to others. Consumers also select one brand from a subset of 36 as the "best overall."

Key findings in the 2005 Roper Reports Worldwide study include:
• Consumers ranked Discovery Channel as the number one global media brand among seven globally distributed media brands;

• Consumers ranked Discovery Channel number one in frequently being recommended to others among seven globally distributed media brands;

• Consumers ranked Discovery Channel number one in regularly watched/used/owned among seven globally distributed media brands;

• Consumers ranked Discovery Channel number two in likeability (after Disney) among seven globally distributed media brands, exceeding National Geographic, MTV, CNN, BBC and ESPN; and

• Roper Reports Worldwide also notes that consumers view Discovery Channel as exciting as well as "creates the unexpected and continually amazes me," ahead of MTV and National Geographic.