Discovery Communications to Become Publicly Traded Company

ENGLEWOOD/NEW YORK, June
5: Discovery Holding Company (DHC) and Advance/Newhouse Programming Partnership
have reached a deal to combine their stakes in Discovery Communications,
creating a new publicly traded company that will own 100 percent of Discovery
Channel and Animal Planet, among other cable networks.

Discovery's current
management team will remain in place at the new parent company. Former
Discovery CEO and current board member John Hendricks will be appointed chairman of the new company and David Zaslav will
be the CEO.

DHC will spin off to its
stockholders a wholly owned subsidiary holding the networks and creative-services
businesses of Ascent Media Group. DHC will combine with a subsidiary of the new
publicly traded company and existing DHC stockholders will receive shares of
common stock of the new company. Advance/Newhouse will contribute its interests
in Discovery Communications and Animal Planet to the new company in exchange
for preferred stock that will be convertible into shares representing one-third
of the outstanding shares of common stock of the new company.
Advance/Newhouse’s preferred stock will entitle it to elect three members of
the new company's board of directors and to exercise approval rights with
respect to the taking of specified actions by the new company and its
subsidiaries. The deal is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this
year.

DHC currently holds 66.67
percent of Discovery Communications and 100 percent of Ascent Media Group.

—By Mansha Daswani