Koppel to Make Early Exit from Discovery

NEW YORK, November 26:
Former ABC News anchor Ted Koppel and Discovery Communications have agreed to terminate their
partnership six months ahead of the May 2009 end-date of their three-year
contract.

Koppel joined Discovery Channel in January 2006 as managing
editor, and
brought with him his executive producer, Tom Bettag, and eight staffers from Nightline. During his time at Discovery, Koppel and his team have
produced 15 hours of programming, including a four-hour series on China,
documentaries on prisons and Iran and a town-hall meeting about living with
cancer that featured his former executive producer, Leroy Sievers.

Since
Koppel joined the company, David
Zaslav has come on board as CEO, and John Ford has been named president and
general manager of its flagship Discovery Channel.

"There
has been significant change in senior management at Discovery," Koppel
said announcing the decision. "Producing our kind of news-related programs
is an expensive proposition. It has long been clear that neither of us is
interested in an extension of the current contract. Discovery and I worked on
terminating the contract a few months early under terms that both sides found
acceptable. We leave with gratitude for the professional opportunities we've
been given and for the generosity with which we've been treated."

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski