Universal Sports Expands To More Than 45 Million Households

Universal
Sports, the multiplatform destination for Olympic-related sports programming, has
expanded its reach to 20 new television markets, boosting its distribution to more than 45 million
television households.

This
distribution increase comes on the heels of a 100-plus hour broadcast by
Universal Sports of the Alpine World Ski Championships where American Lindsey
Vonn, who will lead the U.S. Ski Team at the 2010 Vancouver Games, won two gold
medals.

The Alpine World Ski Championships is the
first of many important World Championships that Universal Sports will
broadcast this year, in addition to many top National Championship events
including the U.S. Olympic Trials in Curling on Feb. 27-28, where the U.S.
Olympic Curling team for Vancouver
will be determined.

Universal
Sports, which originally launched as World Championship Sports Network in
October 2006, has delivered more than 16,000 hours of Olympic sports
programming to U.S. consumers on television, combined with an additional 20,000
hours of programming online.

“We are
delivering on the pledge we made to our consumers and partners when we launched
Universal Sports, and we are further solidifying Universal Sports as the key
destination in the U.S.
for major national and international competition in Olympic-related sports,” says
Claude Ruibal, CEO of Universal Sports.“Our partnership with NBC
Universal has been key to helping us succeed in making incredible sports
available to every consumer in the U.S.”

“Many
of the stars of the Beijing Olympics will continue to excite and amaze as will
the future stars of the Vancouver
and London Games, and the platform to watch these incredible athletes compete
as they build toward the next Games is Universal Sports and
UniversalSports.com,” says Gary Zenkel, President of NBC Olympics.“This
recent growth in the reach of our network, and the continued expansion we
expect throughout 2009, will ensure that these great athletes and their stories
can be followed all around the country.”

Universal Sports
is now available in eight of the top 10 DMAs including New York, Los Angeles,
Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco and Washington,
D.CThe latest expansion includes launches in the first quarter in
Houston, Miami, Seattle, Denver, Portland, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City and
Jacksonville.