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SKY Italia Selects Snell & Wilcox Kahuna for New Sports Production Department

-- AMSTERDAM (IBC) -- Sept. 7, 2007 -- Snell & Wilcox today announced that SKY Italia has ordered its second Kahuna SD/HD production switcher to serve as the centerpiece of a new sports production studio at the network's new headquarters at Milano Santa Giulia, Italy.

News Corporation's SKY Italia was among the first broadcasters in Europe to adopt Kahuna, which dissolves the barriers between standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) sources by handling both formats together or separately and by allowing all types of SD material to be integrated seamlessly into HD productions with no need for upconversion.

"This is the second multi-format SD/HD Kahuna that SKY Italia has purchased," said Enzo Paradisi, sales manager of Video Progetti, Snell & Wilcox's partner in Italy. "SKY Italia's first Kahuna has been in service for more than one year now and has played a key role in helping them make a smooth transition from SD to HD in their Cologno Monzese production center by enabling both types of sources to be used interchangeably and by allowing the same switcher to cut both SD and HD programs."

"HD sports programming continues to involve a mixture of SD and HD sources, since goal-cams, driver's cams, and similar sources are still typically SD, not to mention archival footage," said Ben Leenders, director of engineering at SKY Italia. "Based on this requirement and on our very positive experience over the past year with our first Kahuna, a second Kahuna was a natural choice for our new sports production department in Santa Giulia."

In addition to being an early adopter of Kahuna, SKY Italia has worked directly with Snell & Wilcox to enhance the system's functionality. For example, the Kahuna Cliptrax feature, which gives the switcher's operator an easier way to air animated transitions with sound effects, originally came to life as a result of user feedback from SKY Italia.

The multi-award-winning Kahuna uses a technology called FormatFusion to give users the ability to work with both SD and HD video sources simultaneously with no compromise in picture quality. Not only does this capability make Kahuna the most versatile production switcher available on the market, it eliminates the need for additional upconverters and other peripheral equipment, saving space, weight, power, and money. It is also a capability that is particularly relevant for live sports production.

Since its introduction in late 2004, Kahuna has captured double-digit market share and won a number of industry awards, including the Frost & Sullivan award for Worldwide Technology Leadership in Production Switchers. More information about the Kahuna and other products from Snell & Wilcox is available online at www.snellwilcox.com

SKY Italia, the Italian digital Pay TV platform, started operations on July 31, 2003. As of June 2007, the number of SKY Italia subscribers is 4.2 million. It offers a variety of channels to satisfy the varied interests and passions of the Italian TV viewers: the best in cinema, high profile sports, entertainment, news, documentaries, travel, music, and children's channels. SKY Italia's digital platform includes over 160 television, audio, Pay Per View, and interactive channels for the entire family. SKY Italia is 100 percent owned by News Corporation.

Snell & Wilcox designs and builds the world's most advanced systems for video playout, mastering, repurposing, infrastructure, and live production switching. Providing solutions that deliver immediate value while enabling a controlled and cost-effective transition to HD and file-based systems, the company serves a worldwide base of customers in the broadcast, postproduction, cable, satellite, mobile TV, and IPTV markets. In business since 1973, Snell & Wilcox maintains its U.S. headquarters in Burbank, Calif., and European headquarters in Hampshire, U.K. Additional offices are located in New York, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, and Russia. Further information is available at www.snellwilcox.com.

Press Contact: Susan Warren, Wall Street Communications, Phone: +1 631 261 1013. E-mail: susan@wallstcom.com.

Snell & Wilcox, Putting Pictures to Work, iCR, Ph.C, Prefix, DEFT, FormatFusion, and MOLE are trademarks of the Snell & Wilcox Group. All other trademarks mentioned herein are acknowledged as property of their respective owners.