Discovery Acquires Knowledge Website

SILVER SPRING, October 15: Discovery Communications has
reached a deal to acquire HowStuffWorks, an online informational tool that is
accessed by 11 million unique visitors from around the world every month.

Located at www.howstuffworks.com, the site’s traffic has
grown 25 percent over the past year. In addition to an editorial team that
creates new content every day, HowStuffWorks leverages the exclusive digital
rights to over 30,000 books, 800,000 images and more than 180,000 maps as it
explains the world from brains to bats, from rocket engines to roller coasters,
from hybrid cars to HDTV, and countless other topics. The site will be
bolstered by the addition of clips from Discovery’s video library.

“The HowStuffWorks acquisition is a strategic bull’s-eye for
Discovery,” said president and CEO David Zaslav. “As the leader in knowledge
and curiosity on television, we are proud to partner with the experienced
management team of HowStuffWorks, the leader in knowledge and curiosity online.
One of my early challenges at Discovery was determining how best to build a
robust digital media portfolio. With HowStuffWorks, Discovery now has a solid
platform for strengthening our digital businesses, leveraging our video assets
to create new experiences for users, advertisers and our distribution partners,
and taking those opportunities around the globe.”

Jeff Arnold, who will continue his role as CEO of
HowStuffWorks, added: “To continue meeting consumer expectations and
aggregating large audiences, HowStuffWorks partnered with a global media
company with a complementary brand and extensive media assets. Contextually
integrating engaging clips drawn from Discovery’s vast video library of more
than 100,000 hours of programming with the family-friendly and evergreen
collection of expertly written articles on HowStuffWorks will ultimately
deliver an accurate ‘video wikipedia.’ Information-seeking consumers will find
a rich, multimedia experience to answer the world’s questions, and our business
partners will find new opportunities to reach targeted audiences of engaged
consumers.”

As part of its complementary on-air/online strategy,
Discovery is actively expanding its programming franchises dedicated to popular
science and popular technology, such as the hit TV series Mythbusters and How It’s Made. The company is developing and
producing additional programming in these genres that is easily edited to short
video clips that can be utilized to enrich the content on HowStuffWorks and
Discovery’s other online platforms.

The first of the new TV programs, How Stuff Works, will focus on man-made systems,
natural phenomena and technology. It will air daily on Discovery Channel
beginning in summer 2008 in the U.S., with worldwide rollout expected soon
thereafter.

As part of the HowStuffWorks transaction, Discovery
Communications will acquire a portfolio of other digital properties that
complement the Discovery brands, including ratings and reviews from
ConsumerGuide.com, a database of digitized maps owned by GeoNova Group
(formerly MapQuest Publishing), and QuickCompliance, a medical education
business that complements Discovery’s existing health businesses. Through
HowStuffWorks, Discovery Communications will also hold a minority equity position
in HSW International, a separate and publicly traded entity that has the
local-language rights to the HowStuffWorks content and brand in Brazil and
China. HowStuffWorks current shareholders will maintain a significant equity
position in HSWI. Discovery Communications intends to enter into a licensing
agreement providing certain content rights to HSW International in Brazil and
China.

HowStuffWorks and these additional assets will become a
subsidiary of Discovery Communications. HowStuffWorks will continue to be based
in Atlanta, Georgia. Discovery has no immediate plans to significantly change
the 160-person team or its operations.